Broken Dreams
by copycatthundorus
Summary: A new day, a new adventure, or is it? Ash has a seemingly normal day back at home after he has taken a little break from travelling through Kalos and coming back to Kanto for his 15th birthday. But a familiar org. appeared and killed his Mother. Getting framed for what he hadn't done, he sets out to avenge his mother and then live a life of solitude; maybe. Ends in Amourshipping.
1. Chapter 1

**Hey guys, I am copycatthundurus here with a new pokemon fic, Broken Dreams. This is an attempt of mine to try and do something with my free time while I wait for the update of some of the fics I follow. If you like it PM me and review. So, enjoy.**

* * *

Slowly, he opened his eyes. With a light head and a blurry vision he tried to process what was happening around him. He felt like he had been hit with a hammer on his head. He casually wiped his hand over his forehead, and felt something on his hand, something wet. With a little of his vision restored, he tried to check what was on his hand, and considerably paled by the amount of red he could faintly see.

"Pikapi!" cried an unknown source, blocked from his view by his hand. He lowered it just enough to be able to see a yellow blur knock him back to ground. "Pika…."was all he was able to mumble out before he felt his vision losing again.

"What happened?" said a visibly worn out Ash in a shaky voice. Opening his eyes, he saw that he was inside a cavern lit up with a small fire. He once again wiped his hands over his forehead to see if he was still bleeding, and felt bandages wrapped around his head. He tried to sit up, but soon lost his strength and lay down again. "Rest, you will need your strength." said a feminine voice to Ash. He turned around to see two figures who were sitting on the opposite side of the fire. One of them had the same body proportions as himself, but with a small horn protruding from his head, and the other was a seemingly feminine outline who seemingly wore a flowing gown with a similar horn protruding from the chest.

"Pikachu has been waiting for you to wake up." said the same voice after sometime. "Pi-Pikachu?" Ash called out for hiss number one buddy. Suddenly a yellow blur came onto him and became stationery over his chest. "Pikapi!" said the excited rodent who continued to snuggle into his friend'ss chest. "Good to see you too buddy!".

"So what happened?" he asked after sometime to the other two present. "You were heavily injured and were plummeting down to the ground on your Pidgeot, so we rushed in and saved you from falling. I apologize for while tending to your injuries, I had read some of your memories as to determine why you were in this situation and am deeply sympathetic to your predicament." said the figure through telepathy that Ash came to recognize as the Embrace Pokemon Gardevior.

"Well you were in a real tough spot. Pidgeot took a hyper beam while protecting you. Someone must have really been out there to get you." said a seemingly boyish voice that emanated from the other figure that Ash recognised as a Gallade.

Ash couldn't figure what was happening, he was supposed to be getting ready for his flight to the Kalos region. He had come back with clemont and bonnie to Kanto to celebrate himself turning 15. After Ash had reunited with the second Pokemon he had ever caught, he returned to his house to take his belongings. The Kalos league was supposed to start the next month so he had a lot of training to be done.

But then the memories of what had happened earlier came flooding back to his mind.

* * *

**_Flashback_**

_Ash was coming back towards his house, with Pidgeot's pokeball secured on his belt. He was ecstatic and wanted to see the expression of his friends when they would come to know what happened. Little idea did he have that he was in for the most grievious shock of his life._

_In front of his house, there were two police cars parked. An Office Jenny was standing next to three of her subordinates with Professor Oak, Misty and Brock with Mimey at their side. All of them had grim expressions on their faces, and it seemed as if they were waiting for someone. Clemont and Bonnie were staying at a hotel in Viridian city because Clemont was too shy to take Delia's offer to stay at Ash's home. Ash frantically started running towards his house "What happened? Why is the police here?" these were a few of the thoughts which were rampaging through Ash's mind. When he came into sight, Officer Jenny called out, "There he is!" and pointed towards Ash. Misty and Brock took out their pokeballs and the police subordinates brought out their Growlithes. Mimey took a serious expression, adding upto Ash's confusion and fear for the worst as the Pokemon who was always happy had taken such a huge difference in his demeanour. Ash remebered that his Mom sent Mimey out to the market before he had gone out to route 1. Pikachu confused, but still took a battle stance, ready to deffend his Pikapi, should there be a need to._

_Ash was startled to see the hostility from all of them. He tried to ask Professor Oak what the problem was, but only got a cold stare filled with hatred as an answer. Ash asked Pikachu to stand down, and moved forward toward the fence of his house. "Stay there, Ash Ketchum, you are under arrest for the murder of Delia Ketchum!" Officer jenny bellowed through her loudspeaker._

_As soon as he heard the words, he froze at the spot. He blocked everything, even the commotion that was happening due to Jenny trying to take Pikachu from Ash, and as the result Brock's Steelix and Misty's Gyarados lay fainted on the ground. He broke down into tears, he felt a small paw rest on his shoulder, which soon went away, then his hands were suddenly bound together in handcuffs and he felt himself being dragged, and then thrown into some sort of back of a car._

_The car ride was quiet, according to Ash, it was, while Jenny sat there telling him about how his license had been revoked and he how much evidence was collected against him, only to be turned a deaf ear by Ash. His whole world had been brought down. His mother was dead, and the police thought he had killed her. These two things kept revolving around in his mind. Even though he knew that he was innocent, he was too broken to do or say anything in his defence._

_He kept feeling some tremors and some shocks, but he didn't care. Suddenly he became upside down, with the seat belt he felt had magically appeared around him strained against his body. This was enough to bring Ash back from his trance. He somehow opened the seat belt and fell onto what was at that time, the roof of the car's cabin. He climbed out from the shattered window, only to be tackled down to the ground by a large orange wing. "Raaaar" was the scream of pain that he heard from the owner of the wing. Ash's eyes widened when he realized that he was being protected by his Charizard from a Hyper Beam. "Pidgoooooo" came another scream which was a battle cry from Ash's Pidgeot. Since Charizard was injured from taking the powerful normal type attack, a small yellow rodent came running to him and poked his head with a small red and white ball. After returning Charizard to his pokeball, Pikachu dropped it near Ash, who instinctively took it. He then searched for what or who had been attacking them, and saw a large cream colored cat snarling at him, with a man wearing an orange coat and brown hair._

_Ash just stared at the man, he was too puzzled to say anything. "How interesting, killing you on the same day I killed your mother and made you as the prime suspect. Persian! Hyper Beam once more." he barked. His Persian began charging another orange ball of energy in front of it's mouth. In it's response, Pikachu formed a yellow ball over it's tail, while Pidgeot formed his own energy ball in front of it's mouth, but of a blue color._

_Ash couldn't make out what else happened, all he knew that he was blown back, as if hit with the force of 5 giga impacts. And then, all he could comprehend was darkness._

* * *

"Mom..." was all he could say, after which he broke down into tears again. Gardevoir put her hand on his shoulder and tried to console him as much as she could.

Ash abruptly stood up, his hands trembling, with a light blue glow in them. He punched the wall of the cave while still crying. Not noticing the evident carck he had made on the wall, he took out the two pokeball he had on his belt. He released Charizard and Pidgeot, while Pikachu climbed onto his shoulder, trying to calm him down.

"Mom..." he spoke in a shaky voice, "I will avenge you".


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey guys, Here is another chapter today. I was quiet bored and so I typed it up. And yeah sorry for not answering a PM from Gliscor, because my account is still not fully activated.**

* * *

"Thank you for saving us. But now we have to go." said Ash with clenched fists although his voice truly sounded sincere with gratitude.

"Are you serious!?" Gallade lashed out, "You are framed for a murder and you think that you can march out into the open and attack a person who killed your mother. Even if you are not a murderer yet, you are going to go to jail if you even attempt to get out, and also you plan to kill a person."

"Gallade, you should really start practicing your empathy," Gardevoir said calmly, "or you would have sensed what Ash meant."

"Look sister, I am not as strong with psychic empathy like you, nor did I check his personality and memories, but even I know that it is a stupid plan." Gallade retorted.

"Well Ash can do whatever he wants, and I am sure that he will not do anything that is out of the pathway of human laws, although I have no idea what type of laws humans even have."

Ash chuckled a little when he saw the two psychic type siblings bickering with each other, but he couldn't help but feel a pain in his heart when he thought what his other friends would be thinking about him now. He thought that both the pair of the siblings from Kalos and Hoen would now have been informed about the incident and they would probably hate them. He also couldn't help but think that when his childhood friend would come to know about his alleged crime, she would also hate him.

But unbeknownst to him, they already knew and were currently taking action.

* * *

"You are not allowed into a crime scene." Officer Jenny said sternly to a young boy who was 13 years old, wore glasses and a blue jumpsuit. "But, I can help, I am an inventor. I can help to find the clues and..." his voice was drained out by Officer Jenny's "NO! How many times do i have to tell you, we found Ash's fingerprints on the knife with which Delia Ketchum and..." it was not too long that she understood that she was talking to thin air and that the kid had already left. But she didn't know that the boy was still there and sneaked into the house. Clemont took out a small camera and started taking pictures of the scene. He was still unnerved with the site of blood, but he wanted everything in his power to clear out the name of the boy who had such a rich influence over his personality and confidence. Near where the outline of Delia's body was marked, he took a picture of the mud that was in the shape of a boot, which was clearly too big to belong to Ash. Then he took out a glove that had been thrown under the table which was covered with blood. If the knife had Ash's fingerprints, it was impossible that he would have worn gloves while doing the malicious act. Before turning towards the door, Clemont silently prayed for the Peace of Delia's departed soul, and for Ash's safety.

* * *

"You can't be serious, I mean how could you let them take him!?" said an extremely furious twelve year old boy with black hair and rectangular framed glasses. He wore a green t-shirt and black jeans and had a nerdy air about him. "You seriously think that Ash killed his own mother?" said the fourteen year old brunette who accompanied the boy. "And-And nobody has an idea of where he is after the attack?!"

"No. Even the Jenny who accompanied him is now in the hospital after that attack, apparently Ash was the target. And about believing he was the culprit, we had no other choice, there was enough evidence against Ash." said a visibly calm Brock.

"Yeah, some investigation." came a sarcastic voice. They turned around to see the thirteen year old who had just returned after avoiding the eyes of the police and gathering evidence.

"Did you find something?" asked the hopeful May to her latest acquaintance she had made at Ash's birthday party. "I did. Enough to show that it wasn't Ash who did it. But just for safety, I have sent Bonnie to Professor Oak's to check if any of his pokemon are missing." answered Clemont.

"Heeeeeeyy!" came the voice of the Hyperactive eight year old from the direction of the lab. "I asked Tracy about Ash, he said that one of his pokemon and one of his pokeballs are missing."

"Oh yeah, which ones are mising." Brock asked her. In reality, he had lost all hopes of proving his friend innocent. But, what the little girl said next rekindled his spirit and trust in Ash. "Well, Tracey said that a Pidgeot's pokeball is missing and Charizard is gone too."

Brock slit eyes almost appeared to have taken a circular shape at hearing that. He knew that Ash had promised his Pidgeot that he would return for it, and when he was arrested, he was coming back from the direction of Route 1 where Ash went whenever he went to meet his old pokemon. Everyone else was confused at his reaction. Firstly, they always thought that he could never have round eyes, and secondly he did not give a grim answer to this revelation that proved otherwise. "We have to get to the police." he abruptly said.

"Yeah, and I have this evidence... " Clemont stopped when he noticed that he had already started moving towards the officers.

* * *

Professor Oak was standing at the entrance of the small Pallet Town graveyard. He hadn't need to go there too much since there weren't too many deaths in the small town due to the low number of people living there. He was accompanied by a young girl with shoulder length honey blonde haired girl.

They were both silently standing there with flowers in their hands. Both of them were there to pay respects to the departed soul. Both of them were having different reasons to know the person, but both were there for the same reason, to pay their respects to Delia Ketchum.

They both respected her, and in the absence of her only son, they were there to make sure that she had a proper burial.

After half an hour, both of them started to move towards Professor Oak's lab. They both avoided talking to each other since although they had the same respect for Delia, they had very different approaches to how or who was the reason of her death.

* * *

"How did a bunch of kids do a better investigation than the police!?" said the superior Jenny, the head of Pallet Town police, who unlike the other officers, knew Ash personally, and after this incident with Ash gone missing, was quite furious with the incompetence of her juniors. They had also left out important clues that were vital to the case. "Do you know what these new revelations would do to your case, and now an innocent trainer went missing under the police supervision too."

"I am sorry mam..." the younger Jenny said fearfully. Hearing this, her superior sighed, she knew that she couldn't be mad at her own cousin for too long.

"Ok, now we need to clean up this mess, send out rescue teams to the forests adjacent to Route 1, and also inform Professor Oak about Ash Ketchum's innocence so he could reinstate his license."

"Y-yes mam" her junior saluted and moved out of the office. The superior sighed once more at the brash decisions of her junior.

* * *

Gardevior had made Ash to stay with them for a few hours. Even though he stayed silent and tried to control himself from going into the emotional breakdown again. He had been planning his next move with Pidgeot and Charizard giving their inputs in between, in their own language of course, after he would leave the cave. In this time Gardevior and Pikachu kept on talking animatedly with each other while Gallade kept silent and listened to their conversation. Gardevior had come to know about Ash's past adventures with the legendaries and his accomplishments over the five years he had been a trainer. She was, surprised to know that Ash had met almost each and every legendary pokemon in the whole world. Pikachu then tried to lighten the mood by boasting about how good was Ash, by telling her about how Charizard had defeated an Articuno, Sceptile took down a Darkrai and he himself had defeated a Regice and tied with a Latios.

This piece of information was intriguing to Gallade. Even though he was calm and collected most of the time, his fighting spirit was strong and he could never say no to a good opponent. And as fate would have it, he had two possible formidable opponents in front of him and he couldn't keep himself contained.

"Alright. If your trainer is so great, I challenge him to a battle!" he declared startling everyone else.

"Uh, brother I don't think that this is the right time" Gardevior said noticing a change in Ash's feelings.

"Well I don't care, if he is going to keep moping over his mother's death, then how will he be able to avenge her." Gallade said, completely oblivious to the tone he had used. "Brother!" shrieked Gardevior. It seemed that even if she wouldn't have shrieked through telepathy, her shriek would have been audible.

"No he is right." everyone was surprised to hear that, Ash stood up and started walking towards Gallade who stood there smirking. "I accept your challenge."

"Oh brother..." said Gardevior.

* * *

Outside the cave was a small clearing, in which on the two opposite sides stood Ash and Gallade. Pikachu had returned on Ash's shoulder and Gardevior was standing on the sidelines, her hand put to heart with worry for her brother's safety. He had recently evolved into a Gallade and was quite inexperienced, and if Ash was halfthe trainer Pikachu told her he was then Gallade could get seriously injured against his powerful team.

"Gallade, I will allow you to choose your opponent from my team since you have asked for this match" Ash called from his side. Gallade smirked. He knew that Pikachu had defeated two legendaries in battle, but he didn't have an advantage over him. And Gallade wanted a match where he would clearly be at a disadvantage. So his only reasonable opponent was...

"I request to be able to battle against Charizard" he called voicing his choice.

Ash respected his choice and knew that Gallade wanted to test himself against a strong opponent, so he complied with him. "Come on Charizard!"

Charizard swooped down from air as he had come outside to stretch his wings. "Raaar" he bellowed.

"You have the honors" Ash said. Then he signalled Charizard that he could do this match on his own. Getting the green light Charizard smirked.

Gallade came running towards Charizard with a psycho-cut, which he intercepted with a Slash attack. Then they both started trading blow after blow while using these moves. When Charizard grew bored, he pushed Gallade back and let loose a flamethrower. Gallade used Detect and dodged with ease. While he was distracted by the intensity and speed of the flames, Charizard came in with a full force Flare Blitz-Wing Attack combo. His eyes widened, and he tried to dodge them both by flipping backwards, but Charizard's second wing scraped against his foot, causing a burn. In the split second that Gallade was in the air, Charizard reached out and caught his leg, which he held on tightly while he took off, preparing for a Seismic Toss, while using Heat Wave to damage Gallade as much as possible. When Charizard started spinning to make Gallade dizzy, he used Calm-Mind and focused himself. When Charizard threw him, he used psychic to save himself from plummeting to the ground, but cringed slightly due to the damage from the burn. Then he charged forward with karate chop. Charizard prepared another wing attack and used his glowing wings to protect himself from the karate chop, while he prepared his new technique that he had been waiting to show Ash. As Gallade let up his barrage of attacks to double back and regain his strength, Charizard removed the wings that were covering his face and shows a glowing red ball of fire that he had conjured. Gallade's eyes widened, while Ash became excited to see the unknown move. Gallade quickly used Detect as Charizard let the orb loose at a breakneck speed. He jumped backwards onto a large boulder where he could be at-least a few feet above the monstrous attack. But, as soon as the attack hit the boulder, it exploded with enough force to send Gallade flying into the air. Both Ash and Gardevior knew that it was over.

"Charizard! Catch Gallade!" Ash cried out.

Charizard panted having used so much power, he felt faint, but still started to move toward the pokemon and caught him securely in his arms. Laying the fainted pokemon onto the grass, Charizard started relaxing after using so much of his power to use his new attack.

"Brother!" Gardevior called out in concern and ran towards he sibling and started to use heal pulse on the downed pokemon. Ash saw this and asked Gardevior if Gallade will be fine, only to get an answer that she had seen him worse. Relieved that it wasn't that serious, Ash moved over to his Lizard pokemon and asked him "Hey Charizard, what was that move?"

Charizard just shrugged since he did not know what to name it. "Well, I wish i had my pokedex to know. Oh well, lets name it ourselves." said Ash.

"Raar" Charizard roared in, amused and interested as to what name his trainer would come up for this move.

"It is certainly a fire type move, and it obliterated that boulder with a huge blast... So, how about Blast-Burn?"

"Pi Pikachu" Pikachu chimed in approval of this name. "Raaar" roared Charizard with happiness.

"That is a good name" Gallade said recovering from the damage. "Well, Ash, I have to give it to you, you are a great trainer. I haave a request to make to you."

"Speak your mind my friend." said Ash.

"I want you to train me." Gallade said.

* * *

**Well that is that. Looks like Gallade took a liking to Ash. Has he earned a new team member. We will see.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hey guys am back. If you have any queries regarding the story just ask through review or PM me. Don't worry, now my account is active. And yeah, some part of this chapter may have some errors or mistakes because I have written this one on my phone. And thanks to ultimateCCC for pointing out the Foresight mistake. So without further ado, enjoy.**

* * *

"Huh? You want me to train you?" spoke Ash. He certainly did not expect that Gallade wanted to train under him. "Is that a problem?" Gallade said with a slight amount of disappointment in his voice. Ash sensed it so he continued.

"No it's no problem at all. I just didn't expect this. And what about your sister. What will she do without you?"

"Meh. All I know is that she was already thinking about following you."

"Well, that was unexpected..." Ash turned his face towards Gardevior who was standing coyly by her brother's side. "I don't mean to intrude but when Pikachu told me about all the times what you have helped pokemon " Gardevior said with sparkling eyes.

"That is why I had considered that if I were to join you alongside my sister, I had to test whether I could learn something from you after all. She has also become a fangirl" which earned him a 'Hey!' from Gardevior " so there was no way I could have allowed to get myself caught by a guy who was all talk and no show."

"Alright, but who said I was going to catch you?" Ash's reply made astonished the siblings. "I only catch those pokemon who are willing to be caught for becoming my partners. I don't know about Gardevior, but I know that you want to get stronger and if I catch you then I may be restraining you from challenging some great opponents."

"Why, thank you Ash!" Gallade had never met a human who was kind enough to let a pokemon follow him without catching that pokemon first. After losing from him and being allowed to train under his expertise, Gallade had come to seriously respect this trainer. But, he could not believe how despicable humans were, that how this trainer was betrayed by his friends at his weakest when he was innocent all along, just because of some small evidences.

"Ash, before we agree to join you, you have to promise us that you will not use our powers on the dark path of vengeance you have decided to take..." Gardevior said in a low voice. She did admire Ash, but she did not want to do evil things that Ash might do in revenge for his mother's death.

"No need to worry, besides, who told you that I have taken a dark path." his answer confused the psychic siblings even more. "I will explain to you later, right now we need to prepare for a long trip."

"Where are we going?" Gallade asked tilting his head in question. "That is a surprise for you two."said Ash smirking.

* * *

Back in Pallet Town, the news of Ash Ketchum's innocence spread like a wildfire. People had started to question police vigilance about the big blunder caused due to the incorrect investigation and how Ash went missing. Tracey Sketchit and Professor Oak had left for the Indigo Plateau to meet the League Officials to try and get permission for tracking Ash's Pokedex. A certain honey-blonde haired girl was in her temporary room that had been provided to her by the Pallet native Professor. Her face was buried in her pillow with dried tears evident on her cheeks. Her eyes were bloodshot from crying and she couldn't find the courage to get up from her bed and answer the pounding punishment that the door of the room was overbearing from a brunette coordinator and a spiky haired, squint eyed Pokemon Doctor. Behind them were the younger brother of the brunette and another blue haired coordinator. They were both standing there with worry clear on their face and red hands from the pounding they had done initially. "Brock, do something, she hasn't answered the door for such a long time, I am getting worried." May shouted voicing her concern about the girl inside the room. All of them ignored what seemed as a flash of fireworks from outside. "All right Max, help me break this door!" shouted Brock.

The two young men positioned themselves in front of the door and just as they were about to hit it, an unlocking sound was heard from the other side. They both skid to a halt when they heard it and May cautiously opened the door. On the bed Serena was sitting with a small pink tablet in her hand in which she was continously browsing. The worried teenagers scurried into the room, voicing their concern as to what the girl had been doing this long inside her room all this time. She looked up and tried to force a smile as she showed them the screen of the tablet. The teens were confused as to why she was showing them the map of Route 1 and surrounding areas when a startled cry caught their attention.

"Guys, come down stairs quick" gasped the aspiring inventor.

* * *

A few moments prior to Dawn and Max attempting to call Serena, three figures appeared in the forest near the Oak ranch.

"All right Gardevior, could you please sense and tell me how many people are there inside that house" said Ash pointing towards the lab.

"Certainly" Gardevior's eyes glowed blue for a second as she searched for the presence of people. "There are seven humans, all of them are on the upper floor of the house."

"Ok, now could you please Teleport us near to that window." Ash pointed towards an open window. "All right."

In a split second, they were standing outside the window Ash had pointed to.

"Ok Pikachu, you are up, sneak in and grab my pokeballs, Gallade stand near this window to help him out. I am going to go find Bulbasaur and ask him to gather the gang." He was answered by a proud and boastful 'Pika!'. Then Ash called Pidgeot and took off deeper into the ranch.

Pikachu jumped up from Ash's shoulder and into the window, and started slowly navigating through the furniture of the room. Once he reached the safe where all the pokeballs were kept, he prepared a weak iron tail and nudged the safe's handle. It creaked a little and then the safe opened allowing Pikachu access to the interior. But, in there he met another obstacle he hadn't met the last time he had sneaked in to get Charizard's pokeball. The pokeball were all covered with a glass protection. Luckily, Pikachu had seen the Professor use it earlier so he knew that he had to get to a panel on the wall and press a red button to take care of that. But the main problem was that he was too short to reach the panel. He looked around and found a stack of books outside the locker on a table. He nudged the stack with his head and all of the books came tumbling down. Pikachu had to use Quick Attack so as to save the books from making a loud ruckus and alerting everyone else in the house. Then suddenly, he heard a loud pounding noise coming from the upper level of the house. he shrugged it off and carried the books one by one into the locker, climbed the stacks and pressed the button by outstretching his tiny arm. When the glass rolled back, he quickly dashed over to the pokeballs and minimized Ash's pokeballs by nudging the small button on them twice. After minimizing each one, he dropped it onto the floor. When he got all of them, he got onto the floor and sweeped the ground with his tail, taking a few pokeballs with it each time. He quietly resumed this until he heard that the pounding sound upstairs had intensified, and now people were shouting Serena's name asking her to open her door. He thought about checking what was wrong, but he dismissed that thought remebering that he had to remain undetected or his Pikapi might get into trouble. He continued sweeping the balls on the floor towards the open window and called for Gallade. Gallade looked in through the window and saw that there were more than forty pokeballs lying there. He was surprised to see that Ash had so many pokemon with him, but quietly started picking them up. Gardevior also helped by using psychic to lift some out herself. She was feeling that the tension inside the house was rising, and she was starting to get concerned about some of the feelings she felt emnating. Once the pokeballs were all outside, they saw a flash in the sky with small fireworks flying, which was coming from the bulb of a Bulbasaur. Then suddenly many pokemon started running towards the center of the ranch.

"Hey guys, how are you all" said Ash standing at the epicenter of all of them. He was met with an excited roar. "Yeah, I missed you too guys. Well I now have to ask you guys something."

* * *

"Oh. My. Arceus..." said Dawn. "Holy Ho-oh" Tracey said when he came in. "When the hell did this happen?!" cried out Professor Oak when he came into the research room. Clemont and Bonnie were standing with their head hanging down in front of the mess that they could have prevented if Clemont wasn't distracted with working on an invention to track down Ash and Bonnie grooming her Dedenne.

"Call Officer Jenny, tell her someone broke in and took all of Ash's pokeballs. Search for Bulbasaur, we need to call every single of Ash's pokemon. Seems like someone is really out there to get the Ketchum family."

"Ash, will you be ok out there?" Serena whispered.

* * *

**Looks like nobody in Oak's Lab has an idea of who was the thief. Wait and see the next chapter.**

**Now about this story. I want to inform my readers that this is an Ash Betrayal story, but without the bitterness from Ash, and there will be a time skip, but not so soon. So seeya guys .**


	4. Chapter 4

**Hey guys! copycat here. I know that this update may have taken a lot of time. It's because that I am going to visit my brother who lives in another state today ie. the day that I started writing this chapter. So, it may take me some time to finish this one up and upload it.**

* * *

Ash was standing on the edge of a cliff, with a bag slung over his shoulder that contained all the pokeballs of his pokemon that had faithfully followed him on his journey. On his other shoulder was his faithful partner and friend, Pikachu, and on his side, his new apprentice in training, Gallade, and his sister who had joined inon the journey, Gardevior, standing. They were all taking in the beauty of the sunrise. It was a new day, the day that marked the beginning of their journey to help Ash avenge his mother.

Well, it was a journey for Gardevior and Gallade, but for Ash, it was the sole reason remaining to continue. "This is a real pretty sight, right buddy?" he said.

"Pikah..." Pikachu cooed and rubbed his cheek against Ash's cheek.

"So, where to go now?" Gallade asked him.

"Viridian city..." Ash smirked as memories flooded in his mind of the day when he had first set out for Viridian City. He still had vivid images of how they had to outrun a flock of spearows and he tried to save Pikachu from impeding death. And in turn Pikachu protected him by sending out a massive Thunder attack and defeated them all. That day was the start of thee very strong and beautiful bond that had developed into this friendship that helped him hold onto sanity, after the depression and guilt of being a failure in protecting his mother. He shed a lone tear, thinking about what his friends thought of him. And that was all because of one man. A man who did the heinous crime and framed him. But, now it was his turn, and he was determined to succeed, even more than ever before.

* * *

Unknown to Ash, his friends now knew that he was innocent. His name was cleared as the investigation continued to find the real murderer. A certain honey-blonde haired girl was also suffering from similar guilt that Ash had, but the reason was different. She couldn't stand by his side to help him. She couldn't help save him from the attack, due to which he was now missing. And the worst one of them all, she couldn't even help protect his pokemon from theft.

She was sitting outside the lab, on the grassy field. Her mind was thinking, concentrating hard, _Where could he have gone. Think Serena think. He could have told you about a place where he would go in case of an emergency. But, he is nowhere to be found near Pallet._

Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of footsteps coming towards herself. She turned around to find her faithful Delphox and Pancham, with a sad look on their face. They could always sense their trainer's mood swings and they couldn't help but worry about her. Serena had been spacing out a lot and it was starting to make them concerned about her.

"I'm fine, don't worry about me." Serena tried to reassure her pokemon, only to fail miserably because in the end her tone got considerably shaky.

"Pan- pancham", "Del..." were the replies from her partners. Serena showed them a genuine smile. She was touched by the concern her pokemon showed towards her, and now she was determined. Determined to search for Ash.

* * *

Ash walked into the small pokemart situated at the outskirts of the city. His clothes were dirty and torn. But, with Gardevior in tow, he was saved with the shroud of illusion that kept his identity concealed from the bystanders. He went straight to the clothes section and took the first hoodie he could find, a black hoodie with a sleek collar that covered the sides of his face. Then he got a pair of steel gray jeans. As he passed through the hats section, he considered buying one but soon dismissed the idea that he could easily be recognized then. Then he wondered what had happened to his old hat. Pikachu looked at his partner's confused expression and rubbed his own cheek against Ash's. this made him forget about what he was thinking and returned towards stocking up supplies for the welfare of his pokemon.

Stepping outside in his new attire, Ash took out three pokeballs from his pack and released Charizard, Pidgeot and Staraptor.

"Alright Pidgeot, I need you to take us to Vermillion City." said Ash to his first flying type. "Pidgooo" it nodded in approval. "Now, since Gardevior and Gallade are both Human sized and I don't want to burden you all, the two of you are going to follow myself and Pidgeot to Vermillion City carrying them." Staraptor nodded and Charizard sent a flamethrower of approval. "Now Charizard, your training begins here. You are an excellent battler, but you need to learn new maneuverss to be able to be the best in flight. So, watch closely and try to keep up with Pidgeot and Staraptor... when they are flying while using arial ace." Ash said the last part after pausing for a while. Pidgeot was astonished, he had never flown so far away while using this much of his energy. Staraptor had similar thoughts but decided to trust Ash and do what he asked. "Gardevior, you fly with Pikachu on Pidgeot, while Pikachu, it's time for your target practice." Now, PIkachu was extremely confused. "Pika Pikachu Pikapi?" he questioned his partner. Ash just smiled and gestured for him to do so. Gardevior and Pikachu climbed on Pidgeot while Gallade climbed on Staraptor. Ash turned to Charizard and said "I know that you have been training with the most powerful Charizards out there in the Characific valley, but I am going to assure you Charizard, I am going to give you the most challenging training ever, so, are you up for it?". Charizard nodded enthusiastically. It had been looking forward to doing more training with Ash and this new training schedule excited him heavily.

* * *

Serena climbed down the stairs, determined to go out and search for Ash. She froze ash she passed the Professor's living room Ash she heard his naame n=being taken by someone. She peeped through the opened door and started listening to the conversation. "... his hat and some torn pieces of bandages were found lying in a cave near Route 1, we believe that someone had helped him from the accident..." the voice of Officer Jenny trailed off when she heard her phone had started to ring. "Yes... WHAT?! Where have his pokemon been sighted? Flying towards Vermillion from Viridian? Ok. Thank you for the information..." was all she heard when Serena started running outside. She opened the door and slammed it behind her and threw her pokeball. "Come on out Braviary!"

"North West direction, quick!" she shouted as she climbed on the back of the large eagle like bird pokemon that had materialized.

Braviary spread her wings and started flying towards the commanded direction at a high speed, sensing the urgency in her trainer's voice.

"I am going to make you pay you thief!" snarled Serena in such venom in her voice that sent shivers down Braviary's spine. She had never seen this side of her trainer's personality and wished that she was never to be on the receiving end of it's wrath.

* * *

"Come on! Charizard you need to stay calm and focused!" Ash cried out to the orange dragon he was currently riding. Charizard was having a heard time keeping up with Staraptor, let alone Pidgeot. And now he also had to maneuver himself through the endless barrages of thunder and lightning that Pikachu was sending out towards them. Even with Ash's help, he was having trouble with the electric type attacks he was being subjected to and couldn't help but wonder waht else could be there in the intense training with Ash.

Gallade was surprised with Ash's unusual requests to his pokemon, but had quickly realized the meaning behind it all. Staraptor was good at dodging the attacks, but still Pikachu would find a way to send out monstrous amount of electricity towards it that could prove dangerous. And so, he himself had to step in and use detect or protect to save them from being hit. He was now really excited about how much stronger Ash is going to make him by training.

Staraptor and Pidgeot were doing as they had been asked. Pidgeot was practicing it's speed and Staraptor was working on its movements. From time to time, with Gallade's help and Gardevior's healing, they were able to plow through the problems being faced.

Pikachu was the one who was enjoying himself to the most. Even though the thought of accidentally hurting his friends lingered in his mind, it knew that Ash had actually thought it through and was just trying his best at throwing out the most strong thunder attacks he could conjure and making them hit it's target. Pikachu's thunder attack was powerful, but was extremely inaccurate. So, it was good training for him.

Gardevior was initially horrified when Ash had asked his team to do such a dangerous thing, but soon her fear was replaced with interest. All of the pokemon were obeying and using their full powers to get stronger. She respected their dedication and tried to help whenever she could. Now she was begging to understand how Ash had become so strong.

Ash was smirking, this wasn't his usual training method, but they were not training now to participate in a tournament. They were training to encounter and take down life threatening situations which were soon to be followed in their life. Then he started thinking about how his life had turned completely upside down. He let a lone tear fall down his face and promised himself to to someday visit his mother in the graveyard, if he was to survive that is. Then he remembered all of the good times he had with his friends. Then he thought about one particular female friend who had made him so strong and helped him alot. But, soon his trail of thought was cut short by a loud screech coming from behind them with a voice screaming at the top of it's lungs.

"STOP! You are not going anywhere yo thief!"

* * *

**My first attempt on a cliffhanger. Was it good guys? Anyone? No one? ok...**

**To avoid confusion Serena's current team- Delphox, Pancham, Charmeleon, Braviary, Vivillion, Grovyle.**

**I decided to put these as according to me, this could be a possibility. But some are intended... If you know what I mean...**


	5. Chapter 5

**Hey! ****Wassup dudes!****. Yeah even I like my normal greetings better. Oh well. So lets continue with this chapter shall we...**

* * *

"STOP! You are not getting away with his pokemon! And now you are hurting his pokemon too? I am gonna give you a world of pain!"

Ash halted his train of thought as he turned around to see an extremely angry honey blonde haired girl approaching fast from behind. He was confused as to why he was being chased by Serena, but quickly deduced that he must have been spotted and already his pokemon were missing, so that was pretty much the give away. He mentally smacked himself for his stupidity and shouted, "Everyone, stop what you are doing and break formation, we need to lose her now!"

The to birds nodded and started to break away. Pikachu stopped zapping out thunder and focused himself to help in getting away from Serena. Gardevior and Galllade were confused, but still obliged.

Ash turned to Charizard and said, "You need to rest old friend so get inside your pokeball now!"

Charizard tried to resist as he coulldn't leave Ash like this at such a great height. But, couldn't do much since the red beam already hit him.

Ash started falling towards the ground and opened his bag, desperately searching for the pokeballs of his other flying types or he would certainly meet his doom if he wasn't fast enough. Much to his added horror, Serena was gaining in fast too. He couldn't help but be surprised at the speed her Braviary was flying.

Pidgeot and Staraptor had noticed that Ash was in trouble, and they couldn't have left him in such a situation, so ignoring his previous orders they started flying towards him trying to save him. But, they were too late.

Ash felt everything blacking out the third time this week and was convinced that this time it was the end.

* * *

"What?! Serena left to take care of the thief on her Braviary?!" Clemont shouted out.

Everyone except Bonnie, who was shivering fearfully, were surprised at this. "Is that a bad thing Clemont?"

"It is a bad thing. Braviary doesn't have such a good history. Although Serena was able to befriend it somehow and is able to control its behavior, it is a very dangerous pokemon. The memory of the first time we had encountered it still sends shivers down my spine..."

_**Flashback**_

_It was a warm summer day in the Kalos region. Ash had won his sixth badge against Valerie, the fairy type Gym leader. They were once again travelling to Shalour City since Ash had some secret 'mission' he had planned out. Ash had gone out with Korrina's grandfather Gurkinn to the outskirt of the city. At that time, Serena, Clemont and Bonnie were getting a tour of Shalour City's history and heritage by Korrina. _

_"Gym leader Korrina!" a gym aide came running towards the group when Korrina was showing them around in their ancestral home. _

_"What is it?" Korrina asked. "A Braviary has crashed onto the beach of Shalour City. It is hurt, but it is not allowing anyone to get there and help it out."_

_(Time Skip)_

_"What are we going to do?" Korrina had been working hard to try and calm Braviary down. Two people had already come into harm's way and were successfully been saved by her Mega Lucario. They were now running out of options, and soon if nothing else was done then they would be forced to take her down before it became a danger for the people._

_The group were at a __safe distance from the scene__. Clemont and Bonnie had witnessed a pokemon gone to rampage before, but the situation was different this time because Ash was not here to calm things down. Serena was feeling sorry for the Eagle pokemon, and so she decided that she would do everything in here power to save it._

_She noticed that people were going towards it with pokeballs at the ready, which made it more cautious. "Stop, don't go in there with pokeballs, she is getting scared!" she called out._

_"Then what are we supposed to do?" said one of the volunteers who had come to calm Braviary down."We can't go in there without protection!" cried out another._

_"Let me handle this." Serena said calmly, and to everyone's surprise, she started moving towards the hurt pokemon, slowly and calmly. Braviary started to grow wary of the approach of the new arrival, she was surprised to see this human coming near her. But, the last time a human that had come near her, he had stabbed her trying to take her down. Braviary spread her wings to warn the approaching human._

_When Braviary spread it's wings, one of the volunteer's calm broke and he called out his Metagross "Quick, use Meteor Mash."_

_"No!" Serena shouted by spreading her hands putting them in front of Braviary to protect it. _

* * *

"After Braviary saw Serena's sincerity towards her safety, she allowed Serena to help her. But, since Braviary was quite large to be taken by avehicle, Serena promised her that she would only catch and keep her in a pokeball for the time it healed up and then release it. But, after some time Braviary took a liking to her and decided to stay with Serena. She only trust Serena completly. The only other human that I have seen Braviary be comfortable with was Ash after he had returned from his 'missio' after a few days. Even though Braviary is quite obedient, she becomes quite a handful and if Serena doesn't keep a check on her, then maybe the thief would be seriously injured.

"Yeah, Braviary can be a real meanie sometimes!" added Bonnie.

* * *

"Aargh, lemme go now! Are you crazy! Do you wanna kill me!"? Ash shouted out to the infuriated girl who was sitting on the large predatory bird as he was being clutched in it's claws and was almost getting crushed.

Rather than answering the hooded figure being subjected to her wrath, Serena called out to the worried Pikachu riding on Pidgeot, " No need to worry now, am here. He won't hurt you anymore..." her voice trailed of in fear as she saw Pikachu prepare a massive Thunder attack headed straight for them.

Ash noticed this and turned to see an upset Pikachu about to fry his friend, her pokemon and himself. He tried to shout to Pikachu to ensure him that it was under control, but was too late. Pikachu unleashed the attack and it hit Braviary head on. Braviary instantly fainted under the sheer brute supper effective display of power and started falling down.

Ash climbed his way onto Braviary's back, to find Serena lying almost lifeless. _No, no, no! Please don't die on me. Please don't. Pleaaasse. _

He frantically checked her pulse to find it she was still alive. Barely. "Pidgeot come over here!" he cried.

* * *

"Where am I?" Serena sat up with the her hands on her head. She felt as though she had been hit with hundreds of volts of electricity. Then she remebered that she was hit. And that too at a height of more than a thousand feet. But here she found herself on the ground still in one piece.

"You are quite strong to be able to survive Pikachu's Thunder." her trail of thought was suddenly disturbed by sound that was oddly familiar. Serena squeaked and turned around to find the source of the voice, and found it to be the same hooded figure she had tried to capture earlier.

The hooded figure jumped down from the tree and stood face to face with her. "Who are you and why are you after me?" the figure which probably was a boy asked her. He slightly raised his head upwards, unknowningly showing her the auburn eyes she had been trying to find out for the last few days.

"Ash. Is that you?"

Ash was taken aback by this question. He certainly did not beleieve that Serena would be able to recognise him so easily. Was he so simple? His thoughts were stopped by a sharp slap on his cheek that resounded through the trees.

"Don't you dare leave me like that ever again!" said Serena as she immediately buried her face in his chest after slapping him. She poured her feelings into the hug, while all Ash could think was_ Where do they get the strength to hit so hard._

* * *

**Crap. Ash seems to have the worst deceptive skills. And there was a small amourshipping moment with Ash being oblivious again.**

**So guys, meetcha tommorrow. Peace.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Heya guys! So, the last chapter was a little short. I will try my best to make this one longer. But, let's play a game while you guys are waiting for the chapter after this one. Try and guess my location. With the next update, I will also update my location on my profile, and the winner who will guess it correct first will get a teensy spoiler regarding the storyline... So, what are you waiting for, read the chapter and start guessing.**

**PS. No hints in chapters.**

* * *

_Unknown Location_

"When are we going to attack again?" said a figure concealed by the shadows.

A large armchair revolved around to reveal a man in an orange coat, with a Persian by his side. "Is that impatience I sense in your voice my friend?"

"No, we have been waiting for well over a week, and that Ketchum has been enjoying too much of a solitude." the figure spoke 'Ketchum' with so much venom in his voice that could kill a Seviper.

"Patience my friend, our grunts are having a hard time at finding them."

"And your organisation was the one that helped him take down the other Teams out there. How pathetic!"

"Hmph! That was the work of my finest agents who were trying to prove their worth, and now since they have, they are on a different mission, but they would surely be the best candidate with this one it seems."

* * *

'Smack'

It was the sound that reverberated through the forest clearing, after which muffled sobs could be heard. In the middle of the field were two teens standing, one with a red glowing cheek, and the other one who had pushed her head into the other's chest.

Pikachu grew alarmed of what was happening, so he left his target practice and came running into the clearing to witness a, well a heartwarming sight to a certain degree. Serena was crying into Ash's black hoodie, while clinging onto him like he was going to disappear the next moment. Ash was well, Ash, his expression of confusion and his reluctance to return the embrace was what that spoiled that spoiled the 'Heart-warming' effect of the scene. Serena seemed completely unwilling to let him go.

Ash noticed Pikachu and gave him a gaze of question and confusion. Pikachu sighed at his Pikapi's obliviousness. He ran onto Ash's shoulder. The sudden change of mass of the object she was clinging to, broke Serena's trance and she slowly opened her eyes to see a concerned Ash looking down onto her._ What was I doing! Ofcourse he thinks that I am weird now._

But unbeknownst to Serena, Ash was having different thoughts. _Man, I was thinking about how I was going to encounter them afterwards, and now Serena's here, I have no idea how I am going to face her. _He couldn't help but feel his heart sink as he gazed into her blue eyes as they were full of hurt and concern.

After a few minutes, Gardevior came into the clearing, and saw the close proximity her brother's new 'Instructor', as Gallade preferred to call Ash, and this new arrival were. She quickly read her thoughts and found no malice towards Ash, whatsoever, then was amused by the way humans were easily deceived and how complex their feelings actually were.

A few minute after Serena had calmed down, Gallade walked in too. As Ash noticed him, he gently removed Serena's hands from around his waist, turned his back towards her and started walking towards the psychic siblings. "Gardevior, could you please check her and her Braviary's health. They both took a powerful thunder attack and they may have gotten damaged." he said. Then he looked away, randomly looking at things while he chanted in his thoughts, _Can't look into her eyes, can't look into her eyes, can't look..._

"Ash, I am fine now, Gardevior please check Braviary." Serena said and released Braviary who was immediately started being examined by Gardevior. Then she walked towards Ash and then moved around him to face him again. He immediately closed his eyes again.

_Can't look into her eyes, can't look into her eyes, can't look..._

He felt her hands cup his cheeks and then he heard her say, "We were so worried about you-"

"Look, Serena, no need to try and make me come back to Pallet. My life is over. My friends think that I have killed my mother." Pikachu started rubbing his cheeks with Ash's to calm him down. "My dream is broken, dead. My license has been revoked. The only reason that I have left to live for is to take my mother's revenge. And, there is no way that you can make me change my decision. So my advice to you is, go back to Pallet, and declare to everyone that Ash Ketchum is dead. And there is no possibility of his return. I cannot keep on placing the life of others around me in danger." by now his fist were clenched shut and his eyes had started to water. "And I certainly am not going to place yours or my friends lives in danger. No need to try and protect me and no need to come looking for me. It is what it is. There is no proof of my innocence. But, I am not going to rest until my mother's..."

'Smack'

Another sound reverberated throughout the forest. It woke a few sleeping Pidgeys. This time, Pikachu fell off of Ash's soldiers. Gardevior and Gallade stepped back to see this unexpected display. _Yowch, what is with girls and strength, they don't show this type of strength when it is needed. First Misty's mallet and now Serena's slaps..._

His trail of thoughts were broken once again with another slap to his face.

"You and your dream!" her voice filled with contempt.

'Smack' and there went another one.

"You and your revenge!"

And another.

"You and your stupid selflessness!"

She shrieked louder and hit harder.

"You and your obliviousness!"

Another one, with each intensifying in power and speed.

"You-you-you..." Serena finally stopped her barrage of attacks on Ash and broke down with the palm of her hands covering her face, crying. "Nobody blames you, Ash..." she said between sobs.

Ash who was suffering under immense pain after her assault, was now looking at her with wide eyes. "But-but you certainly d-don't care about your friends. y-you certainly h-have no place for u-us in your heart. Y-you are a horrible, horrible person Ash! You seriously thought that all of us have turned against you! You think that after all we've been through together... We cleared your name! We proved your innocence! We did so that you could come back to us! But no, you! You-you think so lowly of us Ash! You-you think so lowly of me!"

Ash whose eyes were wide until now, had hung his head low. He slowly walked towards the sobbing girl and picked her up. He embraced her tenderly. Serena had grown feverish after crying so much, so it was easy to have mistaken the red in her cheeks to not to be a blush.

"I don't think lowly of you Serena, but you are right. I am a horrible person. I can't protect the ones who are dear to me. And I am leaving to set things right."

After saying this he walked over to Braviary and gave her a Sitrus Berry. Then he called out Pidgeot, Staraptor and Charizard, and said to them, along with Gardevior and Gallade, promptly, "Time to leave friends..."

"Not again! You. can't. Leave. Not without ME!" Serena screamed. "I am not going to let you plague your mind with all of this nonsense!"

"Serena, you..." Ash started but shrank under Serena's gaze. She was teary eyed but extremely furious. And to think of it Ash had never seen her genuinely angry before, since the time Miette showed up. But that situation paled in front of this one. But, Ash looked through her anger to just find care for himself. It warmed his heart a little. And just as he was making his mind up...

"There he is! There is Ash Ketchum! Come over here!" a voice shouted from behind them. Ash turned to find a bunch of men running towards the clearing with red R's on their black t-shirts. "Not you guys!" he moaned. "Pikachu, don't let them disturb us, use-" was all he could say as before he could say anything, Serena shouted, "You good for nothing Team Rocket! I can bet that you framed him! Delphox come out and use Mystical fire and Pancham, you come out too and use stone edge. Blow them away!"

Ash paled at the amount of hatred and anger Serena was now radiating. And the fact that in her anger, she had gotten the truth, didn't help at all. _Man, what happened to the sweet girl I knew. She's so dangerous._

In a flash, Delphox and Pancham came out of their respective pokeballs, and issued Serena's orders. The two combined moves sped forward, and before the grunts could bring out their pokemon, they were blown away by the impact.

"Now, you. You have two choices, take me with you or come with me to Pallet." Serena said calming down a little. "Serena I-I, can't go back to Pallet."

Serena was astonished. She had scared herself from her own anger and it wasn't enough to budge Ash from changing his decision.

"Fine, then I am coming along" she said, and when she sensed that Ash was trying a way tell her that she shouldn't come, she said, "And don't you dare utter another word against this. I am coming and thats it. Now guide me to where you were going to go."

After hearing her response, Ash sighed and obliged._ Hell hath no fury, like a women scorned._

* * *

**Looks like Serena forced her way into travelling with Ash again. One thing I can assure you, from here on, don't expect it to get mushy and lovey-dovey. In fact, I am attempting to darken the tone from here on out. **

**So long, copycat out.**


	7. Chapter 7

**Hey guys! Hungry for more! So**** let's get on with the chapter.**

* * *

"Hey Ash, why are we going to Vermillion City?" Serena asked, confused by Ash's choice.

"Because we need to disappear. And by the way, it's time for you to get a makeover." said Ash smirking how much his friend loved fashion.

It was morning. Ash had agreed to let Serena come the day before. They were both riding on Braviary and Charizard respectively. Ash's training exercise had ended some time before, and Serena and Braviary had done respectfully well with dodging the deadly Thunder attacks. During that time, Charizard had also done well with dodging them. And now they were just gliding over the clouds with Gardevior and Gallade in tow on Swellow. Pikachu had returned on Ash's shoulder and was now listening to the conversation between Ash and Serena.

Serena blushed on Ash's comment. _Does he look at me that way? But wait, what's wrong with my appearance?_

She voiced her second thought after some thinking. "Is there something problem with the way I look like right now?" she asked with having hope of getting a hint from him.

"Your current look will draw too much attention. People will recognize you as the girl who came second in the Master Class in Kalos." he simply stated.  
"Oh..." Serena was hoping for something better but it would have to do for a reason. "Well... then you have to come with me!" she stated excitedly.

Ash understood her hidden motive in this one, and he absolutely hated it, so he quickly thought of something to try and keep himself off the hook. "You won't need me there, I had only enough money for taking care of supplies and the tickets. Gardevior can go with you, apparently she enjoyed the last time I went to buy my clothes. Plus she can also create an illusion to conceal you from passersby."

Serena fake pouted and then smiled towards Gardevior. Gardevior smiled back and telepathically said to her "I look forward to enjoying shopping with you Serena."

"Huh?" she quzzically looked at Ash who just smirked and said, "Gardevior and Gallade can both talk telepathically."

"Yeah no kidding, I thought that after that display of power, you would be smarter than that." Gallade smirked with his usual unintended insult.

"You should behave, and look at the way you are talking with Serena..."

"So what, I said the truth!"

"It's the way you are saying things that are insulting."

Serena looked forward and backward between the bickering of the two. "So they are siblings too." she confirmed.

"Yup, pretty much evident." said Ash,"They found me on Pidgeot while she was trying to escape with me but she got hit with a Hyper Beam trying to protect me."

Serena gasped, this was the first time that Ash had told her anything about the incident, she wanted to ask many questions but decided against it as it could raise some deep wounds in his mind. Ash was expecting her to ask some questions, but they never came, rather what Serena asked made him conscious, "So, how are your wounds?"

"They are fine, healing up well, but a human cannot be healed as quickly as a pokemon with Heal Pulse." he said.

"Well, ok. Look, we are closing in on a town." Serena said. Ash looked where Serena pointed and saw that they where nearing Vermillion City. The smell of salt in air made him remember the last few times he was here. He turned his face away from Serena to hide his gloomy expression, but had already failed. Serena understood that she should not try to pry further into Ash's feelings._ Not yet Serena. Not yet._

* * *

"Alright boss, the targets are landing." said a Rocket grunt who had been watching the movements of the two teens.

"Good Delta, now keep a close look on the girl, use her to lure her in." said a hoarse voice over the radio.

"But boss, that is the most overused and cliched way to try and lure in a guy."

"Well, then take his beloved Pikachu."

"But boss, we don't have any electric resistant capture device." said another grunt who was standing besides the first.

"Shut up Vita. Just watch them closely and use any opportunity that presents itself."

"But boss-" was all Delta managed when the voice shouted, "No buts. Do your job and capture Ash Ketchum!"

"Understood!" the two grunts stood in attention while saluting an invisible entity.

* * *

"Well, go on to the market Serena and buy whatever you like. Gardevior, please use your illusion to make Serena invisible. Till then, I will hep gallade develop his one on one skills with a suitable opponent." Gardevior nodded to Ash, as her eyes glowed pink and to everyone's eyes, Serena's hair turned completely black, and her eyes turned green.

"Hey! Ash how do I look?" asked Serena. "Well you certainly are not recognizable. Hey Gardevior, how come you changed her hair color and eye color, while you had used a man's image for myself" Ash asked.

"You see Ash, for a guy, the easiest way to disguise him is by using beard and moustache, but for a girl, you can easily just use subtle things to distinguish." Gardevior said in a matter of fact way."Oh, okay." replied Ash.

"Yeah, like he is going to use Psychic powers to disguise people in the wimpy way you do." Gallade smirked. This earned him a Psychic smack to the head and a giggle from Serena. "Ow! Well some body is grumpy, come on Ash! I can't wait to train." Ash chuckled lightly at the siblings antics.

"Ok, let's go Gardevior! Am all psyched up! Haven't been for shopping in a while!" exclaimed Serena. Gardevior happily followed her towards the city.

"Girls, will never understand them." shrugged the two males of the group."Alright lets start on with the training!" Gallade exclaimed. Ash calmly looked at him and then went over to his bag to take out six pokeballs. "Alright Gallade, here I have six powerful battlers, choose wisely." Gallade thought for a few moments, after which he chose the second pokeball. "Are you sure?" Ash asked him. Gallade nodded. So Ash threw the pokeball.

"All right Snivy!" and came out Ash's small snake-like Unova starter. "Snivy." she said calmly. Gallade smirked. He knew that he had a type advantage over Snivy. Ash saw his smirk and said, "I know what you are thinking, but as much as I remember, you don't have any powerful fighting type move." Gallade's smirk vanished. But, he soon returned to his cocky self, thinking that he could still take care of this match.

"Okay Snivy, do you want me to guide you during this training or would you like to fight yourself?" Snivy looked over to Gallade and made a gesture to say it wanted to fight on it's own. "But, I really wanted to fight against you!" Gallade said. "Yeah, and you can prove your worth by defeating Snivy, both with an advantage and without my help given to her." said Ash. Gallade took his this as a test and complied, "Fine, but don't be sad if I quickly finish her off."

"That won't be the case my friend."

Gallade looked over to Snivy and considered to end it all quickly. He lunged forward and prepared a Psycho-cut. He kept on getting closer to her, until something completely unexpected to him. Snivy batted her eyelashes and sent a heart shaped beam towards him. His eyes widened in horror as he tried to dodge it but all he did was a futile attempt. Attract had worked on him and now Snivy slammed him with her tail, and then used Leaf Storm. Thus, knocking out Gallade.

Ash chuckled and took a Sitrus berry from a nearby tree, and fed it to Gallade. He got up, clenching his head. "Now do you understand to keep your distance from girls." Ash said. Gallade nodded. Snivy smiled in happiness and utter satisfaction as she was able to show off her girl power again. Ash returned his pokemon and told Gallade to rest a bit, till he could regain his strength. Gallade was going to do that when he felt a little Psychic connection forming in his head. He tuned onto it, and heard a single word, "Help!".

Gallade's eyes widened in horror. Ash noticed this and was going to ask him about his sudden change in demeanour when Gallade took off towards the city. Ash followed him, sensing that something must be wrong with the girls.

They sprinted towards the city to check what was going on. But, when they reached to the outskirts, Ash's eyes widened in horror too. Serena was held at a gunpoint by a female Rocket grunt, while another male one was standing over Gardevior who had fainted. Ash clenched his fist tight. Apparently, the assailants hadn't seen him.

"And here is a goodbye gift for what you did to us in the forest" said the grunt as her hand slowly moved over to the trigger. Ash couldn't believe that this was happening. _I can't let any other person I care about die like this, I can't, I just CAAAANN'T._

His eyes grew a blue tinge as he leapt forward. All he heard was a gunshot, and the cry of a female. When he looked around, he saw that Serena was standing there, completely unharmed and in evident shock. The male grunt looked at him with eyes full of horror, and then he ran away. Ash then felt something wet in his hands. He brought his hands in alignment to his sight and almost vomited. Blood, on his hands, again. And the main thing that disturbed him this time was, that he was positive that it wasn't his.

* * *

**Da da dum... Man, I feel like a complete ****** for doing that in the end. So how was this guys. **

**And yeah. about the little comp. for spoiler. I have not waited long enough, but you guys will soon get the answer.**

**PM me for any mistakes or review for your viewpoints.**

**Copycat out, Pax.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Hey guys! Since no fanfic user decided to take part in the little comp. I had and only guest reviews came in, (of which, none of them would be shown because most were hate reviews), and the one who got close was, Andreas452cal. Sorry my friend, it isn't possible for me to give you the promised info, but if you want it bad, make an account and just PM me. Ok dude.**

**Now, I feel like most of the fanfiction readers are bored, so wait till the next update and I will give you guys a game for that will be way more exciting and challenging.**

**And, I have one more thing to ask you guys, PM me and tell that is it really necessary to give a disclaimer that you don't own pokemon. I mean, every time I read it in a new chapter of a story, it sounds more depressed than the previous chapter's disclaimer.**

**Now, on with the chapter.**

* * *

_I killed her._

The thought started revolving around in Ash's mind. It started as an idea, and spread like a plague. Ash weakly got up and took a few steps, before collapsing onto the ground again. A few meters away from him was lying the body of the female Rocket Grunt who had at one time held Serena at gun point. Her hand was bent in an unnatural way, with the gun pointed into the mouth. The disturbing thing was, that the gun was pointed to where the mouth should actually be, but there was nothing else there, other than exposed inner contents of the human skull.

Ash was shattered. He could not believe what he had done. He could not even forgive himself for what he had done. He had taken a life that wasn't his to be taken. And he regretted it.

Serena's mind was ablaze with the gravity of the situation. She had no idea what happened at all. One moment she was skipping down the road from the city excited with all the shopping with Gardevior by her side, and the next moment, Ash was lying in front of her, a few feet away from the dead body of the woman who had just attempted to murder Serena. She, tried to compose herself and got next to Ash. She turned him around to see that his face had turned pale, with his last night's dinner, spluttered on the ground next to him. If this was any other situation, Serena would be disgusted, but right now, she avoided looking at the foul mixture of food and digestive enzymes and tried to make a sentence that would snap out Ash from his trance. But, Ash noticed that his head was now in Serena's lap who was looking down at him.

"I killed her" Ash said in a weak, broken voice.

"No, Ash." Serena finally mustered the power to speak a sentence. "You saved me... Y-you saved me from dying!" Serena broke out into tears and hugged his head. Ash was still in a state of confusion, till he remembered that he had jumped into the situation to save Serena. _I killed her to save Serena? I killed her to save Serena from dying? That means that I didn't murder her willingly. It was just defense? Is this so easy?_

Ash's mind was filled with questions, until a siren came booming towards them. Officer Jenny came running down towards them. "What happened here?" Jenny asked horrified by the amount of blood in the area.

Ash was still in his mute trance, so Serena decided to explain what had happened there. Jenny kept a straight face while listening to Serena's explanation, by the time Serena had finished, Ash had recovered a little. But, then another question came in his mind. _Where's Pikachu and Gallade?_

Just as he thought about it, he turned towards where Gardevior had fainted and saw the two, taking care of their injured companion.

"There they are boss! That boy killed Vita over there!" came a voice from the woods from where the male grunt had fled to. From the trees emerged, the male grunt with another man, who was dressed in all white, with a red R on the shirt. He had cyan blue hair, and an air of arrogance about him.

"Oh great! And you needed to run off and give them enough time to call in Jenny!" said the 'boss' rocket. "Oh well. We don't need the two women, so lets finish this pathetic excuse of a mission, which you basic grunts couldn't complete without getting killed."

The two rockets exposed their guns and pointed it towards Jenny and Serena. Serena knew that Ash was still too shaken to do anything and even if he did, he would never be able to forgive himself if he killed another man. And, if he was to take the bullet for her, then she would never forgive herself. So, she resigned to her fate and closed her eyes.

Jenny on the other hand, had faced such situations when she was alone, and she knew that she could disable one of them, but the other could still fire. Considering this as a stale mate, she decided to just do what she could and took out her stun gun and quickly fired on the grunt disabling him. But the superior rocket was even quicker than her. He had already fired towards the honey blonde haired girl, who was too scared to see her own death coming.

A yellow blur ran past Ash, jumped in front of Serena, took the bullet and fell down in front of her. The rocket was surprised as to what had happened, and this made a way for Jenny to quickly fire and disable the remaining offender. Then she ran towards Serena and checked what had happened. For Ash, it was too much to see the body of the yellow rodent lying on the ground with blood slowly coming out. He screamed at the top of his voice "PIKACHUUUUUUU!"

* * *

A blue haired girl was taking care of a Paras, when she heard a gunshot, far off in the distance and a female cry.

She turned to her reliable aid Oddish and asked, "Oddish, do you know what was that?"

"Oddie?" Oddish himself was looking at her confused.

"We need to go check it out. Someone may have gotten injured." stated the blue haired girl.

"Odi" nodded the small pokemon. Then he helped patch up the last few batches of food for the rest of the pokemon, while the blue haired girl went inside her hut to find her medicinal supplies. She then returned and with Oddish by her side, she started jogging towards the direction where the gunshot had come from. As she thought she was getting nearer, she heard another gunshot. She let loose into a full sprint to reach the place. As she was just about to get out of the tree cover, she heard a scream of complete distress.

"PIKACHUUUUUUU"

"What happened here?" the blue haired girl reached the clearing and was horrified by what she saw. A dead body of a female dressed in all black was lying in one side of the clearing. On the other side were two males, one also in an overall black attire while the other one was in white, who were still breathing but seemed to be knocked out. And in the middle, she saw Officer Jenny bent over a small yellow body with another girl having honey blonde hair, while a boy in a black hoodie was crying over it and looked in utter despair.

Jenny turned around and saw the girl. She said, "Please call a pokemon doctor, we have an injured pokemon over here!"

The blue haired girl quickly called out, "I am a doctor, let me look at it!" Then she ran towards the three others and bent over the barely breathing Pikachu, and examined it. Understanding that she needed to take out the bullet, she took out a pair of long medical tweezers and skillfully took the bullet out. "We need to take him to my cabin. Oh no! His body is statically charged. Oddish, please use sweet scent to calm Pikachu down." Oddish used the move and a small amount of aromatic gas came from the grass on it's head and spread around Pikachu. Pikachu seemed soothed, but was still in pain. Wordlessly, Ash took him in his arms and followed the girl down to the path she was taking towards her cabin. Serena also started moving behind Ash, with her hand over her heart in worry for the yellow rodent. Jenny stayed and said, "You two go on and take care of Pikachu, I will go back to Vermillion, with these two, and put an alert for Team Rocket. Their activities have started to grow out of hand."

Serena nodded and continued on her path. Then she remembered about Gardevior and Gallade, whom she found starting to get up to follow her. Gardevior used a small heal pulse on herself, while Gallade took Ash's bag and followed Serena down the path.

* * *

**Well... that ending... ******... but still... I needed to do that. So no worries. Wait up for my next chapter guys.**


	9. Chapter 9

**Hey guys! Whats up... am back with a new chapter. And l have to say one thing before this chapter starts. Thank you all for still reading this story. It is my first and I do it as a pass time story only, while I wait for updates for some of the stories I have set up alerts for. So, sometimes it may seem that I may not be that focused, but don't worry. It may take a few more months, but believe me, I was a guest reader on this site for a year before starting to write and became really angry if any of the stories I had been trying hard to keep tabs on is put on HIATUS, or was DISCONTINUED.**

**And, now the bad news. My academy classes have started, which means that I will not update two chapters a day. Now I come to think of it, how the hell did I do that? Anyways, my school will start from 6th of April, so after that, I will be in school in the morning and studying at my academy in the evening. But, no need to worry, I will not abandon this story that easily. So, rest assured, there will still be continuation, but updates would then become rather weekly.**

**Disclaimer:(I decided to write this after sometime) I solemnly swear that the pokemon world's plot stories and characters do not belong to me.(But, I won't mind if they could actually allow to have some realistic moments in the show.)**

* * *

As the girl took the two teens and psychic siblings into a deeper part of the forest, Gardevior was starting to grow suspicious of this girl. She made a connection to Gallade and said, "I don't get a good feeling about this..."

"And you always tell me to practice my psychic powers." Gallade retorted. "Just read the girl's mind, I thought you had done that ages ago."

"Oh, right." Gardevior was embarrassed that she herself had forgotten to do the basic thing that she had taught her own little brother. Gardevior checked the blue haired girl's memories and saw a small hut with a lot of pokemon around it. They were all running along happily while the girl herself was tending to them. She then checked her earlier memories, and found out how the girl came to know about their location. When Gardevior did not found anything suspicious, she turned to Gallade, and used her link to tell him, "She's clean."

"Wow! That's such a relief, I hadn't checked that already!" Gallade retorted sarcastically. Gardevior pouted and turned her face away from her brother.

In front of the group, the three humans were moving in silence. Ash held Pikachu close to his chest as he walked with his eyes towards the ground. Serena was walking, uncomfortable with the growing denseness of the forest, while the blue haired girl was just moving forward with a straight face. Pikachu was sleeping, but would cringe a little in his sleep from the pain of the bullet wound. Serena thought it best not to ask Ash anything right now since they were in the presence of a stranger. So, she decided to know more about the girl.

"So, what's your name?" Serena asked politely. "I am Melanie, and you are?"

"Serena."

"And who is this." Melanie asked to Serena pointing towards Ash. She leaned in and whispered to her ear, "And why does he keep his face covered all the time?"

Serena quickly started to think for a passable name for Ash, and a reason to describe him covering his face. But, before she could say anything, Ash took off his hood himself. Serena was going to pull him away and ask him why he had done that, but Ash beat her to it. "It's okay Serena, Melanie knows me from earlier."

When Melanie saw Ash's face, she couldn't quite place how she knew this teen, but then she remembered, the Z marks on the cheeks and a faithful Pikachu.

"ASH!" she gasped, "What happened to you! And how did you get stuck into this mess?"

"It's a long story Melanie, first we need to get Pikachu to your cabin." Ash stated, with a blank expression.

"Ok" Melanie was confused, she didn't expect that such an energetic and happy-go-lucky natured guy could become so gloomy and emotionless. But she hadn't known Ash long so she decided that she couldn't bias her decisions now.

"Here we are." Melanie said as they reached their destination. It was small clearing in the forest, with a lake and a small wooden cabin, with some pokemon sleeping near the cabin and the lake, other pokemon were playing around happily. But, they all stopped and ran to greet the visitors with Melanie. Then they noticed that there was a bandaged Pikachu, so they grew worried. "Don't worry guys, he will be fine." Ash said to the pokemon. They nodded and returned to their respective activities.

_Well his kind attitude towards pokemon hasn't changed a bit._

"Let's go. Oddish, please take care that the pokemon won't do any mischeif." Melanie said. "Odi" the weed pokemon nodded his head, and then hopped towards a group of Rattatas who were fighting over the claim of an Oran Berry. The group went inside Melanie's cabin. It was a small single room cabin, with a bed at one side and a kitchen counter with food supplies on the other. In a shelf, there were many herbs and medicines kept, with a few other medicinal instruments.

"Please lay Pikachu down on the bed, Ash" Melanie said while raking out a sheet of cloth. Ash complied and lay Pikachu down, after Melanie spread the cloth on the bed.

She took a jar of medicine and opened Pikachu's bandages, and after examining the wound, she applied the brown paste in the jar on the wound and tightened the bandages again. "This will help him heal faster. Pikachu will recover in a few days, then he can travel once again. But make sure that he take it a bit easy."

"I will." Ash said as he sat down on the bed next to Pikachu, gently stroking it's head.

Pikachu stirred a little, and then woke up. "Pi" it said weakly.

"Always so wreckless Pi." Ash chuckled slighlty. "Pi pikachuu."

"Oh, so you have learnt from the best, very funny."

Pikachu chuckled weakly. Serena came near the bed and said, "Pikachu, I have now idea how to say thank you to you... You saved my life... And for that, I am going to make sure that this idiot here, doesn't forget to buy you ketchup."

After hearing this, Pikachu grinned widely and stared dreamily towards the roof, having fantasies about the red gooey liquid. "Don't spoil him!" this statement brought Pikachu out of ketchup cloud nine, and he weakly shocked Ash. "Ah okay, you win!" Ash said as he puffed out a little smoke from his mouth.

Melanie chuckled lightly at Ash's and Pikachu's antiques. "Okay Pi. Take a good rest. You can't train for a few days. But I have no idea what the guys would do without you to school them." Ash said. Pikachu chuckled at this. Be had become a mentor to Ash's other pokemon. Whether they were his older, or some of his newer pokemon. He was the one that used to explain and introduce the ideas and impressions of the training sessions to the pokemon who needed a bit more explanation than the others, when Ash had started training all of them together.

* * *

"Sir, Butch, along with Delta, has been captured, while Vita was KOA, in the attempt to bring Ash Ketchum in."said Giovanni's assistant.

"Idiots." Giovanni muttered under his breath.

"Sir, I also have good news, the new executives have successfully returned after having developed the base of operations in Orre after using the remnants of Team Enigma."

"Good, assign them with this mission, Ketchum is needed to be brought in or dealt with before Team Rocket moves out of the main regions. And tell them to use lethal means if necessary. No, survivors."

"Yes sir."

Giovanni smirked at his luck as his assistant left his office. The ones who used to be his most weakest grunts, were now an invaluable part of his elite ranks. He just wished that he could watch how they would destroy the last of the Ketchum's.

* * *

Ash was sitting beside the lake, with a distant look on his face. It had been a few hours since they were at Melanie's village. All introductions had been done and explanations had already been given. Now, came the wait for Pikachu's recovery.

Gallade had requested another battle session with Ash, so Ash had put him up against his Infernape, as they were both fighting types and liked a good fight. Assh had promised Gallade that when Pikachu would be better, he would put him up against Pikachu, and then help him make newer strategies, but for now, he needed to level up so he could survive the slaughter of Pikachu's attacks.

Gardevior was with Melanie, helping her taking care of injured pokemon by using Heal Pulse.

Serena was sitting under a tree with her Vivillion resting on her head and Charmeleon working with Delphox to perfect her moves. Pancham was training with Ash's Boldore to practice it's ground type attacks, while Grovyle was just chilling out, too lazy to train. She looked sadly towards Ash. She wanted to go and comfort him somehow, but she couldn't find a way to do so. Melanie noticed the way Serena was looking towards Ash, so she went by Serena's side and asked, "May I sit with you?"

"Sure" Serena gestured her to sit next to her. Melanie sat down and said, "You know, I noticed thee way you look at Ash. I know that you are worried about him. So, why not go and talk to him."

"Because he won't talk about it." Serena flatly said. "He has always had this image in his mind of him being a beam, a protector who was supposed to keep everyone around himself safe no matter what. Now, as his mother died and he was not able to save her, his image was shattered. Now, he thinks of himself to be weak. And, he wants revenge on his mother's killer. I have no idea what to say to him."

"Say what naturally comes to your mind. From what I have seen and understood, you care a lot about him, probably like him. But Ash was is so dense that he will never even understand that even Misty had a little crush on him. He cares a lot about you too, and so he tries his best to protect you. So, my advice is, talk to him not to ask about how he is, but to take his mind off of all of this. You may never know that what impact these small talks could do."

"Okay." Serena said as she got up confidently, abruptly making Vivillion to wake up and be annoyed, and walked towards Ash. But before she could reach him...

'BOOM'

"Prepare for trouble!"

"Make it double!"

"To protect the world from devastation!"

"To unite all peoples within our nation!"

"To denounce the evils of truth and love!"

"To extend our reach to the stars above!"

"Jessie!"

"James!

"Team Rocket, blast off at the speed of light!"

"Surrender now, or prepare to fight!"

"Meowth! That's right!"

"Not you guys again!" Ash moaned.

"Yes, us again." James said as he dropped down from the balloon.

"But not for Pikachu this time." Jessie chimed in as she dropped next to James.

"This time, we are here for you, you Twerp!" Meowth said as he sprang from the balloon with his claws unleashed. "Yeah!" Jessia and James shouted as they brought out their guns and took aim for Ash.

Ash said only four words, "Bring. It. On. Cowards!"

* * *

**Looks like Team Rocket is in for a ride of their lives, as Ash is taking them extremely seriously this time,** **so what do think will happen. PM me to tell me your ideas of what may happen.**

**So long guys, copycat out.**


	10. Chapter 10

**Hey guys! Whats up! After going to the academy, I can feel that half of my schedule is messed up. BUT, no need to worry! I will still write, and am not going to stop that easily so...**

**En el Capítulo!(On with the Chapter!)**

**Disclaimer:(Seriously, the main reason I write this is to add a little more to my word length, just 1500 words don't always cut it you know) ****Soy demasiado pobre para poseer pokemon(You know what this means anyway...)**

* * *

"Mmmm, hmmm. Looks like the twerp is ready to meet his end.", Jessie said as she tilted her head in interest, she really wanted to know how this unarmed teen was going to take down two grown armed professional criminals. The days of their naive pursuit for Pikachu were over, and now they were the go-to A-team of their boss.

"Lets see how you are going to fare against our expertise.", James coolly said.

"Hey! This cat isn't gonna stand around too ya know. So, try to be a challenge for these two idiots so I can get a piece of the action too!", Meowth said as he calmly stepped back a little to allow his team mates to show their skills first.

Ash smirked at their comment. "You cowards think that hiding behind those guns show that you are expert killers. Just shows that you aren't ready to get your hands dirty on the job. Shows how weak you are! You were saying your here for me right, then if you want to kill me, do it with your own hands, like your boss. He wasn't coward enough to use a gun to kill my mother. So, _elites_ let's see what you got."

The trio felt insulted again. Surely this boy had embarrassed them multiple times in front of the boss due to their failure in catching a simple weak Pikachu. But, being called weak, they were not familiar with that at all. But, they had too matured, they weren't going to get angry and go lashing onto him for insulting them, but they were not going to let him go that easy too.

"Hmmm. Interesting proposal twerp. I always wanted to use you like a punching bag. After all the times that you had blasted us off, we deserve to give you the honor with our own hands." James said while dropping his gun to the ground and walking forward.

"Go on James, if you want to, when you are done having fun then we will finish the job." Jessie said while she crossed her arms across her chest.

Serena was not going to stand there gawking at what her crush was going to do. She knew that Ash did not have any experiencing in combat himself, and even though James was not that much intimidating, but she could see that he had changed and he would not goof around at all. She tried to be the voice of reason for Ash.

"Ash no! We need to get Pikachu to safety. We have enough pokemon to take them down easily. You don't need to put yourself in danger!", Serena said.

Ash looked around himself and found that all the pokemon in the village were now snarling at the trio. Even the usually lazy Grovyle had sensed that they were here to cause smiled at all the pokemon and said, "Everybody, stand down! This is my fight! And I am going to take them down." He said. Serena knew that this meant trouble, so she tried again, "Ash please no! They can be dangerous! They can seriously hurt you!"

Ash smiled at her and said, "I want to see them try." Then his body started giving off a blue hue to his surroundings. Serena had now idea how to stop this now. The last time he had done this, he ended up killing a Rocket member. After which he was so devastated that he couldn't even move. And in just a few hours, he was doing this again.

"Time's up love birds. Let's mingle twerp." James snarled as be got into his fighting stance. Melanie had now idea how to stop the forthcoming destruction. She just stood there, too shocked, confused, and terrified to do or say anything at all.

"Mingle... That was an interesting choice of a word." Ash said as he put his hands up in front, fully extended, with his palms facing James, his right hand was further ahead than his left hand. His left foot was at the back. He stood in an overall relaxed position. James laughed at the way he was standing. "Oh come on twerp, you don't even know how to take a fighting stance! This isn't street wrestling!"

"We'll see." Ash coolly said. James was a little unnerved by this, so he got a running start towards Ash with his right hand backed up, balled into a fist, who maintained his posture. As James reached in for a punch, Ash quickly deflected it using his right hand. James quickly tried to punch him using his left hand, but Ash quickly ducked, let go of James' right hand and delivered a knee to James' stomach. As James was clutching his stomach, Ash punched him across his left cheek and grabbed his hair before James fell down with the shock of the punch. Then Ash delivered two quick elbows to James' nose, and then a quick punch to knock him to the ground. When he was done, James fell to the ground with a bleeding nose.

Before Ash could do anything, Jessie had come in and punched him across his face, giving James some recovery time. Meowth went to jump in too, but was helf back by Gardevior's Psychic. "People for people, pokemon for pokemon." she said.

Ash was receiving a barrage of punches and slaps from Jessie. His eyes flared blue as he grabbed on of her incoming punches and pulled her towards the ground, kneeing her face doing so. Then he noticed James was coming in to land a punch, so he swayed the fazed Jessie into his path and smacked James with his own team mate. Then he delivered a kick to James' midsection by which he went flying a few feet away. Jessie recovered from the smack and tried to kick him, but he grabbed her foot and twisted her ankle. She screamed in pain and fell, James scurried back and tried to take Ash down by his own weight in desperation, but Ash quickly dodged to the right from James' body slam, and caught his arm, and twisted around his back, breaking it quickly.

"Had enough." Ash smirked, he wanted to do this for a long time, he learnt these moves from a show he watched in his childhood, but he was morally obliged not to use them because they were too dangerous for the person on the receiving end. But now the situation was different. He no longer was a kid and he had a score to settle with Team Rocket, plus it was self defense, so it was a win-win situation for him.

Jessie saw that they were in trouble and brought out one of their classic tricks, and threw a smoke ball. In the induced smoke, James broke free from the startled Ash's grip, and helped the limping Jessie back to their balloon. Meowth doubled back to his comrades, while he wasn't that damaged by Gardevior, he still knew that they were in a pretty bad shape.

"Is he freaking Goku or what? Couldn't even find a hole in his defenses!" James said bewildered by the display of power. Jessie was too pained with her twisted ankle.

"Plan B." Meowth asked. The other two nodded. A control panel came out of the roof burner, with a screen that displayed the immediate frontward direction of the balloon. As the smoke cleared out, Meowth scurried to the control panel and activated it. A missile came out of the floor of the balloon,and Meowth aimed it at the village.

Ash was struggling to open his eyes, but when he opened them, he saw a missile was being launched by the balloon. He saw to his sides that Serena, Melanie, and the other pokemon were still blinded by the smoke. "See you later Mother******" He ran over to them as Meowth launched the missile. _Can't let them be hurt._

His eyes widened in horror as he realized he was not going to reach in time when the missile closed in, _have to save them no matter what. _

His body gave a blue aftermath as he ran towards the cabin. Serena, was crying, while Melanie was frozen in fear. They had both embraced the pokemon, in a futile attempt to protect them. As the missile was about to hit them, Ash jumped in front of them with a blue energy projecting out of his body._ Serena, Pikachu, guys, pleased be safe._

"ASH!" Serena screamed in fear.

'BOOM'

* * *

**Cliffhanger... I am stupid to do this, will probably get flamed by negative reviews. Sorry guys, not gonna kill the main suspense.**

**I made a reference to my favourite childhood show during the fight, at the request of a PM. Don't worry dude, it's not in the form you asked for, but soon it will be there. I need to at least progress far enough in the story to get something like that in...**

**So long, Copycat out.**


	11. Chapter 11

**Hey guys! The final moment has arrived. First of all, it would not be how you think it is. Ash will *not* hate his friends, he will *not* be isolated from society. But, he *will be* a badass for sure.**

* * *

'BOOM'

"Looks like our job here is done.", James said.

"Serves him right!", Jessie said.

"Meet ya in the Afterlife ya twerp", Meowth waved his hands as the balloon slowly floated away.

* * *

The village was not in sight. The amount of smoke that was produced by the explosion was enormous. It was enough to even temporarily blind a Weezing. The smoke was diluting, slowly, but surely. After sometime, a little amount of the damage done by the missile was visible. The lake had evaporated completely, and the nearby lush green forest was converted into a wasteland. A little while later, the upper half of the cabin came into sight. It was badly burnt, and could break down any minute if the integrity of the lower portion of the cabin was still intact.

As the smoke slowly faded away, the whole village came into sight. One half of the village, which faced direct exposure to the weapon was completely obliterated, but the other half, was still completely unharmed! Melanie and Serena were still crouching in front of the cabin door, clutching all the pokemon, who were clutching them back, for their dear life, with their eyes tightly shut. Serena was still sobbing.

"Why Ash, why did you have to jump in front of us?", she said. "Now we are all dead!"

"You daydreaming again Serena?", a voice weakly said from in front of them.

Serena opened her eyes, as a lone tear fell from them. In front of her, was Ash, with his knees on his ground, and his hands spread out in a defensive way, a faint blue tinge could be seen around his body, he had some blood coming towards the front of his face, but he was still ok. _He is alive? After taking a full missile capable of destroying a village? He is Alive!_

"Your alive!", Serena screamed and ran up from her position to hug Ash. But, as she was about to reach him, he collapsed. She was shaken. "Ash are you ok?"

He did not respond. "Talk to me!"

He did not say anything, while Serena started shaking him frantically while starting to sob again. "No, Ash you can't leave me like this!"

"CAN'T A GUY GET SOME SLEEP AFTER TAKING A FREAKING DAMN MISSILE TO HIMSELF!", Ash shouted as he sat up again, fuming. Serena was starting to annoy him a bit, he was not going any where and she was still frantic about him leaving?

But his rage evaporated in a bit as he saw the teary eyed Serena. Her eyes were filled with distress, she was shocked by his answer, but her earlier motion still stood steadfast in her eyes. He relaxed a little and stood up, and said, "Look Serena, I am tired. I need to get some sleep. So please, let's talk about things later."

"O-ok." Serena squeaked as a small blush crept it's way onto her cheeks. _I need to stop doing this. He will think that I am a retard!_

_She acts like a retard sometimes when it comes to me leaving, but I guess, it's ok. Maybe I would have acted the same way if one of my friends would go on a dangerous path all alone._ And like that, Ash was still Ash. He had no idea what Serena meant by leaving this time, but he did not care this time.

* * *

After some bandaging of his new wounds, a comfortable rest, and a Thunderbolt from the recently awakened rodent for his rash decisions, Ash sat down with Serena and Charizard resting on Ash's side, watching Serena's Delphox and Charmeleon working on a new Flamethrower combo taught to them by Infernape and Quilava.

Infernape had once again taken the time to teach Gallade some new Fighting type moves for his arsenal, Close Combat and Mach Punch. Melanie and Gardevior had taken up the task of checking up on the pokemon, if they were hurt by the blast, but did not have much to do since Ash had somehow stopped all of the energy from getting to them. So they were chatting with each other about random things.

Charizard was watching the combination with a deep interest, he had never seen Flamethrowers do such beautiful formations, and already respected Charmeleon and Delphox for their level of skill. Although he had raw fire power, he was still a little civil, and liked the way these combinations were mesmerizing. He himself wanted to take some tips from it's pre-evolutionary stage, so he could be able to get greater control on his own attacks, but whenever he asked her, Charmeleon would blush and Delphox would scowl, whilst if he asked Delphox for pointers the same thing would happen, in the end getting them a good scolding from Serena for fighting.

Charizard had tried once again, this time with Charmeleon, and another fight started brewing between the two female pokemon. "STOP IT!", Serena shouted.

"I guess both of them want to teach Charizard.", Ash chuckled at Charizard's flustered expression. "So, why not have a 2 vs 1 battle. The one whose attack could take Charizard down, would prove that her attacks are more perfected than the other and she would teach Charizard."

This interested both Delphox and Charmeleon. They both wanted to show Charizard their power. Charizard was a bit tensed. He did have more fighting experience and power, but a crippling battle against two fire types with excellent control over their attacks, was a bit too much for him too. His tensed condition had attracted the attention of Gallade and Gardevior. They had both witnessed the dragon look-a-like's powers earlier, and now were wondering how powerful Serena's pokemon were that even Charizard was tensed.

"But, there is one condition.", Ash said, getting a quizzical look from all. "Charizard would have my help in this battle, while Delphox and Charmeleon would fight by themselves." Charmeleon paled, or better termed, turned a lighter shade of red at hearing this, while Delphox smirked. She had not had a practice match against Ash's pokemon since Kalos, and she had come to know that Charizard was one of his strongest one while he coordinated with Ash.

Delphox nodded enthusiastically, while Charmeleon was a bit weary in her nod. "Are you to sure?" Serena asked the two fire types. This time, both of them nodded again, with a more enthusiastic and determined gesture from Charmeleon. "Alright Ash! Let's do this then!", Gallade cheered from behind, he had wanted to witness how well Ash and his pokemon battle together.

All of them took their battle postions, Delphox and Charmeleon on one side of the field, while Charizard and Ash stood on the other side. "All right, Charizard, use fire punch two kick things off!" Ash said. Delphox and Charmeleon were confused, Ash hadn't stated the target properly at all. But their eyes widened in horror as they saw Charizard prepare two flaming blocks on both of his hands. Then, with a blinding speed, he flew towards the his opponents to strike.

They both were able to dodge the attack due to the sleek performance moves, taught to them by Serena. Then Delphox took out her wand and prepared a Mystical Fire while Charmeleon prepared for her next by first using Hone Claws. "Stop them from attacking using Heat Wave!" Ash said. A wave of Heat passed the two fire types. Due to their typing, they were not damaged much, but Charizard was quite powerful and so his attacks had still some effect on the two.

Delphox quickly used Flamethrower Combo. First it was going straight for Charizard, but then, it erupted into thousands of speeding ember bullets and were almost impossible to dodge. "Charizard, shield yourself with your wings." Charizard did just that and didn't take any damage at all. But, by that time, Charmeleon had prepared a Metal Claw, and was speeding towards Charizard. Charizard was taken by surprise, but was saved by Ash's quick thinking. "Use Mega Punch!"

Charizard quickly threw the powerful punch towards Charmeleon, while she was still in air, and cancelled out her attack. "Now use Slash!"

While Charmeleon was still fazed by the failure of her attack, Charizard had elongated his claws and was about to bring it down on her, but she once again graceefully dodged the attack and went back to her side of the field. In the mean time, Delphox had made a Mystical Fire, and sent it towards him. "Let's test your new attack. Blast Burn!"

Gallade's eyes widened. It was the same attack that had defeated him earlier. And now he was going to use it again.

Serena was confused by this. She had never heard about this attack before. This was the same with Delphox and Charmeleon. So, they prepared themselves for anything.

For anything would be an overestimation, as they surely were not prepared to see Charizard make a huge glowing ball. But this time, he did not release the attack at hole. He formed two smaller spheres that started revolving around the first one, and then he this combination at the two fire-types with such speed and power, that the after math of the attack looked as though it was a Comet's tail. Gallade was once again confused by this. Ash noticed this and said, "I helped Charizard perfect his attack." Gallade nodded to him, his confusion now removed.

Delphox and Charmeleon nodded to each other and used Flamethrower, to form a protective wall of fire for themselves. Then, Charmeleon used her Strength and threw a boulder to the wall so that more protection could be provided. The added effect of the boulder and Flamethrower wall, made the deadly attack explode at contact, but created an enormous explosion that shook the whole village. It rivaled the destructive power of the missile Ash had protected them from. But, not as much smoke was produced as that time. Soon it cleared to reveal both of Serena's pokemon were down. But, they both eventually stood up. Delphox and Charmeleon were panting and were at their ropes, while Charizard was just getting started. Gallade was amazed at how good Ash and Charizard had battled together.

"This battle is over!", Ash said as he walked into the middle of the field with Charizard. Charizard helped both the fallen pokemon up, which earned him a blush from each of them. "Well I guess the two of you have learnt your lesson." Serena said with a slight teasing tone in her voice. Delphox and Charmeleon looked away from each other but smiled nonetheless. "I don't understand!" Gallade shouted as he ran to the group. "I wanted to see more of your battle style, the fight wasn't over yet! Why did you stop?"

"Because, this battle was not to prove who was more powerful than the other silly." Gardevior said as she walked up to her brother. Gallade gave her a questioning look. "It was to teach them about team work and trust in each other's strength. They were both fighting over teaching Charizard, but in the end, Charizard had already more experience in battle. It's like this, you can never stop learning new things in your life. What Charizard attempted to learn as a way to improve his control over his attacks, ended up being a way for teaching these two girls about the spirit of team work." Ash explained for Gallade.

"Well, if it was that easy, then why were they both fighting to teach Charizard! This all could have been avoided you know." Gallade asked obnoxiously.

Charmeleon and Delphox suddenly grew interest in their claws and the ground respectively, while Gallade got a Psuchic smack from Gardevior.

Ash and Charizard tilted their heads at this weird behavior, while Serena just giggled at the embarrassment of her pokemon and Charizard's gestures.

* * *

**And scene. This was quite long, maybe the second or third longest one yet. Well who cares. I got it out almost on time. Maybe not...**

**Next chapter will be something which betrayal story fans will recognize at once. So let's see, tell me if you guys feel like that it is an over used plot going on, some people have been flaming me in the reviews saying that this story is a bit too predictable and boring. PM me or review for suggestions, or if you may find any major mistakes.**

**So long, Copycat out.**


	12. Chapter 12

**Hey guys! I am going to get a head-start on this chapter. And yeah a shout-out to my guest reviewer, platinumguest, thanks for supporting me man. And I well, actually you guessed wrong. I am bored by that plot, and have something stronger and more gruesome(Maybe not the right word, but the only one I have in mind right now.) than that same silly old plot. Plus he is not going to stay hidden from public, but I will ammend my earlier mistake, people would not know that this is Ash Ketchum, even without him wearing a hoodie and all. That is how badass Ash will be. **

**Disclaimer:(OH MY GOD! I forgot to write this since two chapters! Please don't sue me Satoshi Taijiri bro!) I am not related to Satoshi, so, naa, will never own and never will inherit Pokemon.**

* * *

It was night-time. After finishing off their training, everyone had retired to their cabin, for Melanie and Serena, and sleeping bag, which was for Ash and Pikachu, who had recovered a lot and quite fast for such a serious wound and was now allowed to move around and be with Ash, provided that Ash was to do the walking so as not to strain the rodent's healing wounds, and were now sound asleep, except, one human. Serena. She slowly picked herself off from her temporary bed, opened the door of the cabin, and was going outside, when Melanie stirred in her sleep. Before Serena could do or say anything, she sat up and rubbed her eyes, and then noticed Serena was out of bed and was on her feet.

"Can't sleep?", she casually asked. Serena silently nodded. "Going out to take a walk?".

"Would you like to come?", Serena asked. "No, I know that you are going to go outside to see you know who is awake, and I am sure that you can't get him off of your mind, so go out there and if you are lucky talk your heart out to him.", Melanie said.

Serena blushed as she registered what she had just heard. "N-no, I am n-not g-going there to h-him! I-I was going to t-talk a walk. Plus, I-I am not thinking about him!" Serena said slowly, stuttering on most of the words. Melanie just shrugged and once again laid down on her bed. Serena went outside the cabin and sat down to gaze at the stars.

_He has matured so much. The way he handled the situation with Delphox and Charmeleon, how he defended us from Team Rocket, he is now so different. He, how did he survive that blast? How did he take Team Rocket down, maybe the shock of his mother's death turned him into a wiser person to be able to handle a situation like the one's with Delphox and Charmeleon, but how was he able to even plan breaking into Oak's lab and take his pokemon without us detecting him? Did he always hide this side of himself from us?_

She turned towards the tree under which Ash was sleeping in his sleeping bag. Suddenly, a thought entered her mind, she blushed furiously, but got up and walked towards Ash.

But, although, Serena considered that he was sleeping, he was not, he thought that it was necessary precaution for someone to be on guard at all times. He did not want to worry Serena or Melanie and he decided against telling them anything about this. Pikachu had a great sense of smell, and even though he could not fight, he could sense a trespasser from far and Ash could signal one of his flying pokemon, who would keep surveying in the area to attack the intruder.

And, as for Serena, Pikachu had already sensed her and signaled Ash to act asleep. Ash had closed his eyes, and had slowed his breathing, to what seemed to him as passable to someone that he was asleep.

Serena slowly came over to him and sat beside him. Ash could hear that she was breathing quite slowly, but was taking long breaths, as if she was trying to calm herself down. "Here goes nothing.", she slowly said.

_What does she mean, I need to keep my guard up, but, she is my friend, so what is she trying to do?_

"Ash, I know that you are asleep and all, but I want to tell you that you have been an inspiration for me since that day when you helped me in Oak's Camp. You had picked me up and motivated me to go on and face the world, but, when I got back to Kalos, I had somehow lost that inspiration. I became a total snob at home. I did not pay any respect to my mother's training session, and sometimes, paid for my lack of attention. But, the day you came to Kalos, and when I saw you on the television, jumping off the Prism Tower, somehow, I remembered all of your motivation, and set out to see the world, and to return to you one of the things that you had left with me, your handkerchief, that reminded me about you. Honestly speaking, I left home just so I could meet you and return your handkerchief, and I had no idea what I was to do after that. I followed your whereabouts to the Santalune gym, where I reached to see you lose, and run out to the Pokemon Center. I got an excuse to meet you by taking your bag for you-"

At this point, Ash tuned her out, his thoughts were right now roaring through his mind, not allowing him to focus on a single thing.

_Okay. I never thought that Serena thought so highly of me, she was nice to me always, nicer than all the other girls I have traveled with, well, if I take out Misty and Iris that is. I always thought that she somehow always treated me a little differently in respect to other boys, and it really felt good many times..._

His thoughts trailed off as he felt a warm sensation on his face, he ignored it as he again started listening to what Serena had to say.

"- I really wanted to help you, and now, you have saved my life twice, between a span of a single day. I-I don't know what to say or do anymore, for me you are my knight in the shining armor, or some other girly thing like that, but, any girl would love to give little prize to her savior, not that you would understand the importance of this prize..."

_Prize, what prize? Man, if she is going to make her cookies, I love those..._

His thoughts trailed off for the second time in the night, when he felt the warm sensation intensify. He daringly opened his eyes, and saw that Serena's face was a few centimeters away from his own, her eyes closed, and was slowly drawing nearer. He tried to say something to question these actions, but before anything could happen, Serena's lips crashed into his. She stayed like that for some time, while Ash was frozen in fear, until she broke away from him. Ash quickly closed his eyes to save himself from the situation.

"So much for a girl's first kiss...", she said as she stood up and went away.

Ash opened one of his eye to take a look around himself, and found that Serena was no where to be found. He shrugged it off thinking that she must have returned to the cabin. Pikachu, who had crawled into his sleeping bag to keep himself warm for the time being, after he had let Ash know about Serena's presence was now looking at his Pikapi, with a questioning look due to his quietness.

"Girls... Will never get them...", Ash non-chalantly said as he started stroking Pikachu's ears, which earned him a satisfied 'Chaa' from the rodent.

* * *

"So how was it?", Melanie said as she smiled at Serena mischieviously when she entered the cabin.

"H-how was what?", Serena said, a blush creeping onto her face. _Did she follow me?_

"I did follow you, and saw what you did.", Melanie answered her as though she had heard her thoughts.

"I-I...", was all Serena could say.

* * *

The next, morning, Melanie, Serena and Ash got up and got ready for the new day ahead of themselves.

"Thanks Me;anie for everything you did for Pikachu and us.", Ash said gratefully to Ash.

"Don't mention it Ash, it is a small thing compared to you keeping the location of this place a secret.", Melanie said politely. The she gave a small wink to Serena, abd said, "Don't forget your what I said to you, and keep the promise, ok?"

Serena furiously blushed. "Ok!" she said.

"So Ash, where are you going next?", Melanie asked him.

He smirked and said, "Vermillion City."

"Ok, but you haven't still told me why you want to go there?", Serena said.

Ash smirked again. "To meet an old fiend and ask for his help."

* * *

"Giovanni sir! It's done.", said James with his broken hand in a sling.

"That brat has paid for all the trouble he caused earlier, and the pain he caused us now!", Jessie muttered under her breath. Her leg was covered in a plaster.

"Good, take a few days off, for recovery, and then return to the Orre region to work on our latest investment.", Giovanni said as he was smiling.

He had no idea that Ash had it in himself to have caused so much damage to his elite agents, but still, he was the son of the current pokemon master, which he had no idea of himself. _Oh Red! IF you could see how I have extracted my revenge on you._

* * *

In the Pallet Town grave yard, was a lone person, with a Pikachu on his shoulder, standing in front of the grave of Delia Ketchum.

A lone tear fell from his crimson eyes as his messy raven black hair swayed in the wind, unprotected by the usual red hat he used to wear.

_Why?_

* * *

**And scene. Man, I finished this chapter today only?! I am psyched, so am gonna post this chapter now, and will hopefully wake up not to find too many flames.**

**So long, Copycat out.**


	13. Chapter 13

**Hey guys! How are you all? Well, now time to give you the bad news. *Sighs*. Hey am not discontinuing this story, no, it's not on HIATUS either, but my milk run onto continuous everyday updates is,*sighs again* over. It will be a weekly update schedule, mostly on the days of Saturday and Sunday, which will offer longer chapters too(Current update length is about 1500 words on an average per chapter), but, it kind of doesn't feel right to do so after updating. Well, summer break would start during June, so please bare with me till then.**

**I am planning for this to be a pretty long story. So, I will try to update as soon as I can.**

**So, have you guessed who the mysterious friend is... If you haven't, this friend will be revealed... But, I guess that it should be obvious by now, still if you are clueless my dear reader, then read on and you will find out soon enough.**

**Disclaimer:(Man, this is starting to depress me now) *Sniff* No need to be mean and rub it in my face Satoshi, I know that you own this franchise. *Sniff***

* * *

Ash and Serena had said their farewell to Melanie and were now on their way to Vermillion City with Gallade and Gardevior in tow. Ash had a grin on his face and looked really psyched to meet this old friend.

Gardevior and Gallade had another one of their sibling fights, one of the reasons why they had left the village during the night, with lame excuses, just so they won't see each others face for the night, and were very quiet now.

Serena was confused at the mention of an old friend. One side glance at Ash, she saw his grin. She suddenly grew fearful, that like Melanie, this was another girl. _And Ash wants her to travel with us? Does Ash..._

"Hey Serena, you alright? You look pale.", Ash said with his voice filled with worry. "No no, am fine, let's go!", Serena said as she got a running start, trying to hide her blush as she sped away. Ash and Pikachu shrugged and Ash started walking towards the same direction, Serena took off.

* * *

"So Ash, who is this old friend?", Serena asked, hopeful to pry out some information from the hooded trainer, as they walked the streets of Vermillion City.

"It's a surprise... For you and for that particular friend...", Ash said as his grin widened. But, for Serena, it was starting to grow unbearable. "But, how will you find this friend of your out? You said that it's ok to tell Melanie about your identity, because you trusted her to keep your secret as you were keeping hers... But, here, if your friend recognizes you, your identity may be revealed."

"It's ok, Pikachu, you know what to do.", Ash said. Pikachu grinned and leaped off of his shoulder. His bandages were had now been removed and his wound had completed healed up, he was feeling way better now and could run if he wanted to. "But, take it easy buddy, you may feel better, but you have still not recovered yet." Pikachu nodded and ran off into the distance.

"Why have you sent Pikachu away?", Serena said.

"Because, he will call out my friend. Let's wait here.", said Ash, as he leaned against the side of a building.

Gallade stood by Ash and glared at Gardevior, while she was avoiding her brother and was working on calming her mind to extend her Psychic powers.

Serena shrugged and thought that she could only hope for the best now. She looked around and saw a few food shops around them, she could see the Vermillion City Fire Department building in the distance, and the Vermillion City Gym in the other direction. Suddenly, she heard a loud alarm ring in the distance.

* * *

Pikachu was running along the street, zooming through the gaps between the legs of the humans who were laughing and enjoying the delicious food stuffs available around them. There was ketchup too, but Pikachu avoided that now, since the task at hand was far more important, plus he was excited to meet his old team mate.

As the Vermillion City fire department was moving closer to them, suddenly, a loud alarm sounded near him. Pikahcu's ears perked up in alarm, he turned around and saw that a noodle shop had turned ablaze.

Pikachu wanted to go help, but he was not a water type, so he did not have any idea on how he could help out. As he was thinking about his options, a red truck zoomed from behind him, and stopped in front of the noodle shop. A man stepped out from the truck, behind him, and Blastoise stepped out from the back. Pikachu ran towards them to see what they were doing. People had already got out of harm's way and were now looking fearfully at the fire.

"This does not look good. It's an electrical fire, Blastoise will have trouble extinguishing it. Maybe Wartortle could have made some strategy, but he is not here right now. If only we had an electric type, maybe Lt. Surge could help", said the man as he brought out his phone and called. Blastoise was staring intensely at the fire. He knew that if he fired even a weak Water Gun, he may get electrocuted.

Pikachu had been listening intently to this and when he heard him mention 'Electric type', he went to the man and tugged at his pants as he finished calling Surge.

"Wha- oh, hey little guy, you wanna help us?", the man asked. Pikachu nodded. Blastoise was looking with interest at how this tiny rodent could handle himself in that much heat.

"Okay, but be careful, it's quite hot in there.", the man said. Pikachu boasted his power by crackling his cheeks and getting a cocky expression on. The man chuckled and stood back as Pikachu prepared an Iron Tail. Then he found an exposed piece of metal that was in touch with the fire. He ran forward and and struck the piece of metal, taking drawing in the electricity and discharging it all away. Then he jumped ahead and got to another exposed piece of slowly made his way to the offending article, that was the defective electric stove, and smashed it to pieces. Then he looked around for any other exposed wires, but found none. As the heat started to get to him, he used Quick Attack to speed out from the inferno.

Lt. Surge had sped to the shop in his jeep by then and had seen Pikachu manoeuvre through the shop, andd was quite surprised to see a Pikachu do it so brilliantly.

As Pikachu took care of the problem, Blastoise fired a Water Gun and started extinguishing the fire.

By now, Ash and Serena, with the Psychic siblings in tow, had reached the shop and saw that the man was thanking Pikachu, while Blastoise was working on the fire.

"Good work buddy, but are you alright, you still haven't recovered from your wounds.", Ash asked worriedly as he picked up Pikachu. He was met with a thumbs up and a genuine smile.

The fireman smiled at this exchange and said, "Your Pikachu is quite talented and kind. Thank you for your help Pikachu."

"Pika!", Pikachu said.

"Sonny, your pokemon is quite strong, you here for a gym battle?", Surge said.

"No sir. Actually I am here for some other business.", Ash simply replied.

"Well then, but I would still like a battle with your Pikachu.", Surge said as his Raichu's cheeks sparkled. Pikachu remembered who this pokemon was, and had taken him up as an old rival. His cheeks sparkled too as he nodded. "Well, if Pikachu wants it too, you'll get your battle sir, I will visit your gym tomorrow."

"It's settled then, a friendly battle.", Surge said as he got back into his jeep and sped away.

Pikachu then remembered his original task, and turned to Blastoise. They talked animatedly, and then Pikachu nodded to Ash. Ash nodded back, and then Pikachu jumped back to Ash's shoulder, as Blastoise gave them a thumbs up as he and the fireman climbed back onto the fire truck.

* * *

It was evening now. Ash, Serena, Gardevior and Gallade, had come to the Vermillion City park, and were now standing near the center fountain.

"So, are you here waiting for your friend Ash?", Gallade asked.

Before Ash could give a proper answer, he was hit with a water gun to his face. All of them turned to find it was shot by a Wartortle, who was wearing black pointy glasses, and was now smirking. Pikachu ran towards him and high-fived him. Ash smirked too, "It has been a long time Wartortle, I guess I deserved that."

* * *

**Looks like Ash is out there to get back his old team. So, since Squirtle was one of my favourite of Ash's pokemon, of course after Pikachu and Charizard, so, if you guys want any other of his old pokemon who left him, to come back, so review or PM me and shoot.**

**So long, Copycat out.**


	14. Chapter 14

**Hey guys! FREEDOM TO UPDATE RECEIVED! Yeah I was a little bit too psyched up to have gotten time in this schedule of mine. And I have four words for this,"IT'S AWESOME TO BE BACK". Oh, maybe they were five.**

**If you are waiting for Ash's battle against Surge, then I have to say that you will really be pissed at me. Well I am pissed at myself too, at what I have planned for this chapter, is a bit, I don't know, weak in it's appearance. But, it will be a chapter of some small, teeny tiny revelations, and character development as well. And that does not only include Ash and Serena.(Come on guys, there are more characters than these two which are currently in the lime light of the story.)**

**Anyway, enough with the PJ's. I will be updating this chapter in a few hours, which means that I will type, proofread and then update it. Expect it to be a little longer than the earlier chapters, but, if it isn't, don't flame me guys, it is really hard to keep track of length of the chapters to make it enough for the amount of the story progression. Too much and I will be giving unwanted spoilers, too little and the readers would be groaning over the length, so bear with me.(Actually, some of the authors that have inspired me are really great at giving out lengthy chapters, but me, am not at that level yet.)**

**Disclaimer: I claim to have no claim of the claim of claiming Pokemon.(What the hell did I just say?)**

* * *

"It has been a long time Wartortle, I guess I deserved that.", said Ash.

"HAHAHAHA", Gallade was literally rolling on the floor, laughing, while Gardevior glared at her brother. Serena giggled lightly as she took out her handkerchief and gave it to Ash, and then she proceeded to welcome the newcomer, or correctly said, the older veteran.

"Hello Wartortle.", she sweetly greeted the turtle pokemon. Wartortle, who had currently shared a high five with Pikachu, and was currently snickering at Ash alongside the rodent, nodded at her.

"Yeah yeah. Laugh it all away... ", Ash said as he dried his face and then looked directly at Wartortle. "So whaddaya say buddy? Care to join us?"

Wartortle forehead-palmed. He was asked to come to the park if he wanted to join Ash again, then if he wanted to say otherwise, why would have he come. He sent another Water Gun at Ash, but what Ash did next came as a surprise to him.

Ash simply flicked the water away from his face and said again, with a tint of rare seriousness, according to Wartortle, in his voice. "This is not going to be for any frontier match, or some kind of stupid rigged league. There will be serious and intense training, and by training I mean dangerous conditions for training. You may get heavily wounded, and may even be disabled for life, and I can't let a good friend of mine to go through such intense pain unwillingly."

But, Wartortle had already decided that he would go, so there was no way to change his decision. But, Gallade was amazed, this meant that right now, this training was nothing compared to what Ash has actually planned, he was pumped to be able to train under Ash, and now gave a victorious smirk towards his sister. Gardevior, was a little shocked and concerned as she heard all of this, and now she was starting to reconsider her fall out with her brother.

* * *

_Flashback(Night, The Hidden Village)_

_Gardevior and Gallade were again engaged in one of their psychic link fights, Ash and Serena shrugged and proceeded to have dinner. But, they had no idea of the reason of their argument. _

_"**Ash is the better one!**", Gallade roared through the link._

_"**He may be, but he has so much on his mind, and Serena is a great trainer too.**", Gardevior calmly said._

_"**You listen well, sister. Ash can train us better and he will care for us too.**", Gallade said._

_"**But he has so many pokemon to take care of, and Serena is a strong trainer too. Look how her Delphox and Charmeleon were able to take on Charizard's attack. And when he had even improved it too!**", Gardevior said with her hands on her hips.(Or whatever, the way girls sass.)_

_"**You are all show and no power! That is why you wanna go with Serena, because you were mesmerized by her performance.**", Gallade said with a little air quotation on 'mesmerized'._

_"**Why you! I have a way better control over my tounge, and my head too! And for your information, I have a stronger psychic mind than you have.**", said Gardevior._

_"**Just shut the hell up.**", Gallade suddenly said."**If it wasn't the promise to father, then I would have left already and met a strong trainer like Ash, and would be way more stronger than I am today. But no matter, we will go with Ash and become stronger. I don't need to be as level headed as you, I need better guidance and Serena won't be able to teach me anything more than flashy movements. We will be going with Ash and there is no way you will be saying otherwise. End of Discussion.**", Gallade calmly said and walked away._

_"**Ok then, but where are you going!**", Gardevior shouted._

_"**Away from you so I can clear my mind!**", Gallade said and ended the connection._

_Flashback End._

* * *

Gardevior shivered a little. If she was to join Ash's team, and he would make her work that hard then she would not be able to fare too good.

By now Ash had returned Wartortle to his pokeball and was starting to move away, with Gallade and Serena following him in suit. "Hey! Earth to Gardevior! Come on!"

Gardevior snapped out from her trance and followed them. As they were walking towards the pokemon center, Serena was musing to herself as the events of the day were rolling in her mind. She was really happy that the friend wasn't a girl. _This is Ash, so, I should have known it would be a pokemon. But, it was still very relieving to know that Ash has no girl he has promised to meet up._

Then she remembered the challenge from Surge and decided to ask Ash about that.

"So Ash, what are you going to about that match with Surge? You usually do special training sessions before a match against a gym leader, but since this is a special case so...", Serena trailed of as Ash hadn't responded even to one of her questions.

She ran ahead of him and saw him smirking. She was confused to see this, but she thought that she should leave it at this.

The pokemon center was burstling with visitors as always. There was a news of the arrest of the two rocket members outside Vermillion City, with the help of two unknown trainers, who had to leave because of having an injured pokemon.

"These thieves are unbelievable, hurting pokemon! They are so...!", Nurse Joy's angry muttering was topped when Ash had appeared in front of her counter.

"How may I help you?", she said with her kind smile.

"Can I please get two rooms for the night?", Ash asked.

"Oh I am so sorry, only one room is available."

Serena got a blush coming to her face. _Me and Ash are going to share a room tonight, sure Ash will not agree..._

"Thank you, we will take it.", he simply said.

_Maybe not, maybe this isn't going to be that bad, I have kissed him when he was asleep, maybe I could get him to..._

Nurse Joy nodded and gave him the access key. Ash handed the key to Serena. Serena took it absentmindedly, with a small blush on her face due to all the fantasies that were rolling in her mind due to her raging hormones, and she did not notice that Ash was said a few things to Gardevior, then he walked outside the center.

As she woke up from her trance she noticed that Ash was no longer with them. She gave Gardevior a questioning look, when Gardevior answered her question without even being asked.

"He is going to sleep outside in the nearby woods."

* * *

"Well buddy, tomorrow we are going to check your progress with thunder, so use it wisely and judiciously.", Ash said to the curled up ball of yellow fur, which was slowly starting to fall asleep.

"Pika..", Pikachu said ashe slowly drifted to sleep.

Ash chuckled lightly at this as he closed his eyes trying to get some sleep. Suddenly, the image of his mother appeared in front of his eyes.

"_Ash!_",Delia said.

He opened his eyes, which were now dried up from crying so much that he did not have any more tears to shed.

"Ash?", came a voice. Pikachu was alert once again. He sprang up from his stomach, ready to protect his Pikapi. Ash sat up and noticed the source of his voice.

Serena was looking at him with a concerned look on her face. And when she noticed the way Ash was looking at her, she understood that he may have been crying. She went to him and hugged him, in an attempt to comfort him, but she didn't feel him loosen up to her touch.

"It's ok Ash, don't worry, it will be all ok...", Serena said.

"You should go inside.", Ash simply said. "But-", Serena was interrupted before she could say anything else.

"No buts. You can catch a cold if you stay outside.", he said.

"Oh. And what about you then, don't tell me you have found a way to save yourself from the cold."

"Well, if I catch a cold, then no one needs to care. Plus I can't sleep indoors, it feels so suffocating."

"Then I will sleep out here with you."

"Go. Inside. Now.", Ash spoke with threat dripping in each word.

"Or what.", Serena sassed.

"Now, don't make me carry you there."

"Oh you wouldn't dare at all.", she said.

But Ash slung her over his shoulders without any problem. It was so sudden for Serena that she was too surprised to say anything. After realizing the position they were in, she blushed, and then started hitting on Ash's shoulders.

"Put me down. If you are going to sleep outside, then I am too.", Serena said in between her ineffective assault.

"Under what compulsion? What makes you follow me around? How do you bear me so much? Why do you bear me so much?", Ash said.

"Because-because I am your friend.", Serena really wanted to say 'I love you', but she was too afraid of his reaction tendency.

"I need to be alone. That is what is left for me in this world, don't make it harder for me than it already is.", Ash said as he slowly set her onto the ground, while pulling his hood up with his head down. His hood was now covering his face so Serena was not able to see his current expression.

"What do you mean Ash? You are not alone. I am here, your friends are here for you too, although we are right now hundreds of miles away from them."

"Just go to sleep, and leave me alone.", Ash said. But, Serena's resolve was not moved even a little. She hugged him again and started to sob.

"I hate this new you Ash. Please come back to us.", she said between sobs as she hugged him.

"It's good that you hate this me.", he said as he lightly shrugged her off of him and started walking away. He heard a slight thump that indicated Serena had broken down crying. Ash signaled Pikachu to escort Serena to the pokemon center, as he thought to himself, _t__hen you would never have any feelings for me, any attachment towards me and be safe..._

* * *

**Looks like Ash is in a state of depression. Will Serena be able to bring him back. Or will she give up on him? A tough question that will be soon answered. But today, Ash has given his first hint. Celebrations. Ash is not that dense!**

** And what about Gardevior and Gallade? What is this promise to father? Who the hell is this 'Father'? And why are they forcing each other to align with only Ash's team or Serena's team? Who will they finally join? Why am I ranting on with these questions? Am I insane? If you have any guesses, PM me or review. I will reveal hints of this** **in the next chapter, so try your best to wait for it.**

**So long, Copycat out.**


	15. Chapter 15

**Hey Guys!(Uhh... I am bored of this greeting too...) I know, I know. Maybe after sometime I am gonna be blasted with questions like "WHAT THE HECK COPYCAT?!" " WHY ARE YOU UPDATING IN THE MIDDLE OF THIS WEEK?!", and all, or maybe my reader won't be angered or rather be delighted with a treat of an extra update. Well, so let me make this clear. I. Am. Not. Going. To. Do. This. Type. Of. Update. Every. Week.**

**That was rather... boring. Seriously, how do guys make so long sentences while slowly speaking each word. I was feeling like I could doze off in between writing(oops, my bad, typing) this sentence. Well, about dozing off. Yes, I am sick. And so, I got an excuse not to go outside and go for my basketball practice. Yeah, I do sports too. Plus today was a holiday so, it was kind of a win-win situation before, but now it's even better. No need for me to do any work today. OHHYEAAA! **

**So in the last chapter, I had made Serena bitterly cry due to Ash's cold attitude and all, and I gave a huuuuuuge amourshipping hint by Ash, plus there is the case with Gardevior and Gallade, but who cares, because today, it's time for a kick*** battle.**

**Many people will see some interesting things, and the battle will be an attempt to be one of the best close combat descriptive battle I have tried yet, so please review it and tell me where I can improve a lot more. Plus, now I am gonna add something else in Ash's character, something I do myself, maybe it will be added in this chapter, or hinted right now and added afterwards. And yeah, the final thing, about Ash and Serena, well, am gonna take it the way it went for me and my crush(wolf-whistle in the background), buuuuut, with added twists of this story and pokemon itself. Now, now, am not writing a huge pre-chapter summary just so I can increase a bit of the word length. Just as they say, everything in this world happens for a reason.**

* * *

"(Snore)Pika-pika,(Snore)Pika-pika", was the sound heard in the forest nearby the Vermillion City Pokemon Center. It was time for the dawn to break out in the sky, and by the side of a snoring Pikachu, was standing a black hooded figure. As the sun started to rise up into the sky, the deep blue color took an orange hue, as the ball of fire slowly started to shine over the lands of the beautiful Kanto region. Pidgey's started to chirp, and by this sound, the snoring Pikachu stirred in it's sleep.

"Pika...", he said as he sat up groggily, and looked over to one of the other presence with him. "Pika.. Pika... Pikapi?"

"Yes, I have had enough rest, so now I guess, we should get going...", the hooded figure spoke up in a grim adolescent voice, as it started to turn around and reveal the face of a young boy, no older than sixteen. His face was quite void of any emotion, but soon his lips curled up into a kind smile as his eyes turned to his lifelong buddy.

"And you sir, are not going to go inside to stuff yourself with ketchup only.", said Ash. Pikachu moaned as he was once again barred from drinking his favourite treat by his friend. "When did I say that you will not get any?", his ears perked up as Ash said these words. "You can have ketchup as long as you mix some veggies with that."

Pikachu nodded. Even though he could survive for days on only a supply of ketchup, Pikachu knew that he needed veggies to get all of his strength back after healing.

Ash slowly started to walk towards the pokemon center, as Pikachu jumped onto his shoulder. Just as he was about to enter the sliding doors, he halted for a moment. Pikachu tilted his head in confusion, surely his Pikapi must be hungry, then why is he not going inside.

But, in Ash's mind, he was playing different scenarios of how Serena would now behave with him. He expected her to have left, or if she was still there, she would just avoid him and go away. Although he would feel really hurt if she would do that, but he knew that it was necessary to send her away from him. _It's for her own good._

Ash took a long breath, and Pikachu rubbed his cheek against him to sooth Ash. Then, as he was about to enter, the doors opened up to reveal a honey blonde haired girl, who looked as if she very calm, with a Gardevior and a Gallade behind her who seemed to be trying to stop her from going outside.

"Oh there you are 'Ketchum'", she snarled the last word out with such distaste that it made Ash cringe a little. Serena turned around with a seemingly sweet, but actually was dripping with threat, "Gardevior, would you please use Psychic to restrain this runt?"

Two simultaneous gulps were heard. Gardevior nodded, and fearfully began forming a Psychic boundary that barred Ash from the right to run away and save his life. Ash knew how dangerous Serena's tone was, and cursed himself to be so petrified that he couldn't even move, even if Gardevior's Psychic wasn't there to restrain him. He then thought what the poor rodent on his shoulder was thinking as he had to share this fate with himself.

"Now, could you please walk him inside?", she said. Gardevior wordlessly started taking Ash inside the pokemon center. Pikachu was silent, he knew that any type of movement was futile as Serena was right there to take them down if she needed to. Although Serena was very sweet to him when she was normal, but when angered, even Pikachu dared not to defy her. Just as Pikachu was having these thoughts, he was taken away from the shoulder he was clinging to for dear life, and felt two hands wrap around himself. He tensed up with fear, waiting for any punishment coming his way.

Serena slowly stroked the rodent's yellow fur, which made him loosen up a little. Pikachu looked over to Serena, who gave him a sweet smile, devoid of any type of threat or what so ever. He relaxed considerably, he was not going to be in the path of Serena's rage.

Serena returned her gaze to Ash who was looking at her fearfully. Her gaze was full of anger. She slowly walked towards Ash, who closed his eyes to brace for a probable slap from the girl. She slowly walked up to him, slightly tip-toeing to reach his ears, as she spoke softly, but threateningly, "Do that to me ever again, and you are going to regret it for your whole life. It's my life, and my choice, and I am going to do whatever I want with it, and if it includes you, there is no way in hell that you are going to stop me. Understood."

Ash took another gulp, as he nodded his head fearfully. "Let him go.", said Serena, seemingly calmed down. Gardevior let her hold on Ash to dissipate. As Ash was freed from the captivity of the Psychic, Serena placed her hand on Ash's forehead, and said, "Thank Arceus, you don't have a temperature. I was so worried you are going to get a fever by sleeping outside on such a cold night.", she said, with her voice full of relief. "Now go inside and have breakfast, you have a gym leader to cream today."

* * *

Ash took a long breath as he adjusted his hood to cover his identity. It had been five years since he had visited this place, where he and Pikachu had suffered their first crushing defeat. And it was the first gym too, where he had battled hard and earned a badge, to prove his real worth.

Ash walked into the Vermillion City Gym, with Pikachu on his shoulder, just to be stopped by two men in army uniform.

"Halt! State your purpose here.", said one of the men. Serena, Gardevior and Gallade, who were following Ash inside to watch his battle, became apprehensive at the sudden show of hostility.

"Loosen up Carl, I invited this kid for a battle.", came a deep voice from behind the two men. They stood aside as Lt. Surge walked in front of Ash. "This is the kid I told ya about."

"Why the questions then?", Serena asked in her 'Sass' mode.

"That's because of getting a few challengers, who were trying to steal the badge here. They couldn't win against me, so they tried to take badges by force.", Surge clarified.

Ash nodded in understanding.

"So what is your name kiddo? Forgot to ask that earlier.", said Surge.

"The name is Sutorong Ketchi.", Ash said.

Serena sweat dropped at the lame name he had just thought of, while Gardevior and Gallade were confused, but decided not to interrupt the conversation.

"That is an... interesting name, probably not from anywhere around here. So your from which region?", Surge said.

"Orre.", Ash said as he named the first region that came into his mind.

"Alrighty then, lets start the battle!", Surge said as he walked towards the gym Leader end of the battlefield. His Raichu walked out of one of the side rooms and stood by it's trainer as he stared Pikachu down.. "Let's see how strong is that Pikachu of yours."

"We'll show you our best, right Pikachu?", Ash said, giving indication to Pikachu to not to go too rough. Serena and the Psychic siblings had went to the spectator seats, eager to see the battle. A referee walked into the judgement box and said, "This is a one-on-one match between Sutorong Ketchi from the Orre Region, and Lt. Surge, the Gym Leader of Vermillion City, the winner will be decided by a knockout, Begin!"

"Alright kid, do the honours.", Surge said.

Ash just smirked, and then he nodded to Pikachu. Pikachu understood what Ash meant right now, it was time to use his new combo. Pikachu got a running start as he zoomed towards Raichu with a Quick-Attack. Gallade took an interest as to what new techniques he could find with Pikachu. He new that Pikachu was quite strong, but he wanted some example for a start to measure his power. It was quite fast, but Serena had seen Pikachu do a faster one against Clemont's Bunnelby in their Gym Match. _What are you thinking Ash?_

Although Pikachu was quite fast, Raichu had a trick up his sleeve too. Surge said, "Agility."

Raichu dodged to the right with incredible skill and speed, and Pikachu went on ahead behind him. "Finish the attack now!", Ash shouted.

Much to everybody's surprise, Pikachu jumped up and slammed the ground with an Iron Tail, and used it as a spring to flip backwards towards his side of the field into the air. He was doing a sideways roll, while still maintaining his Iron Tail attack, and as he sailed over the confused Raichu, he landed just in front of him, and slammed his tail twice onto it's abdomen. But Surge wouldn't have none of it.

"Use Mega Punch, and Mega Kick to hold your ground, then slam that rat away!", he shouted to his partner. Raichu grimaced from the damage, but he formed the attacks and dug his arms and legs into the ground to stop himself from being thrown by the momentum. Then he swung his tail forward to slam Pikachu.

"Pikachu, bite that tail.", Ash said calmly. Pikachu complied, and as the tail came in close, Pikachu bit down hard on the tail. Although the damage from the slam was lessened, and Pikachu's mouth wasn't large enough to deal much damage with a bite attack, Raichu flinched a little.

"Now, pummel Raichu with Iron Tail.", Ash said as he smirked again. Pikachu held onto Raichu's tail as he started executing his order's. He kept on pulling Raichu's tail, to give as much pain to the larger rodent, and to the utmost limit to gain momentum for his Iron Tail attack to deal damage. Surge clenched his teeh and roared, "Thunder now!"

Raichu became ready to fire his point-blank Thunder, but Ash had other plans, he thought about the latest move he had taught to Pikachu for emergencies purposes.

"Take that thunder, and use Discharge!", Ash shouted. Pikachu knew that the Thunder attack could hurt a lot, and he wasn't sure that the way he had practiced this technique could allow him to take in that much current, but he had to try, so he braced himself.

Raichu unleashed the deadly attack, and Pikachu took it all in. He looked like he was in a lot of pain, but he opened his eyes, and curled his mouth as much as it would allow him with Raichu's tail in it, to smile. Then he unleashed a blue colored lightning bolt that hit Raichu point blank. Raichu coul;dn't take it and fell, with swirls in it's eyes. Ash won.

* * *

"Come on Ash, when are you going to teach me these techniques!?", Gallade moaned. It had been an hour since Surge's and 'Sutorong's' match, and the group of two human's and three pokemon were now moving through the shops of the Vermillion City market. Pikachu was unharmed, and he did not need any medical assistance, but Ash still wanted to give him a check up in the Pokemon Center afterwards. The rest of their time was spent on bearing an excited Gallade, who wouldn't talk about anything else but the battle and how Pikachu had used Raichu's power against him.

"Well, we are not in a suitable place to train now, are we Gallade?", Ash said. Although people weren't able to listen to the things Gallade and Gardevior would say telepethically, they could still see their outward behaviour, and right now, Gallade was kneeling in front of Ash with both his hands clasped, as though he was asking for mercy, which earned Ash some suspicious looks from the nearby people, and one of them had also said something about calling Officer Jenny to report him.

Gallade noticed his position and straightened up again.

"Well you guys go on ahead to the Center. I will browse some shops for any other supplies or things that we need.", Ash said as he began turning around.

"No you won't. Not alone.", Serena said in her same sweet-threatening voice again.

Ash shivered a little and said, "No I won't."

"Hmmmm. Well let's see. I still haven't given you any punishment for misbehaving last night, sooooooooo...", Serena said as she devised her plan.

"Sooooo...", Ash said, still fearful. "So you will have to take me shopping!", Serena said excitedly.

Ash chuckled a little. It wasn't like he didn't hate shopping like other boys, or made those odd gestures representing that shopping malls with girls were living hell on earth.

"Ok, well if that makes you happy.", Ash said. Pikachu jumped of his shoulder, and started walking towards the other two pokemon.

"You guys go on ahead, I have a feeling that we are gonna be a while, if Serena thinks that shopping is a actually a punishment for me."

The three pokemon nodded and started walking towards the center. Serena was astonished by this, she had been told by elder girls that boys hated shopping, and been told about their antics on how they tried to avoid it. _But my Ash isn't any boy now, is he..._

After a few hours, Ash and Serena had finished looking for things to buy. Ash had stocked up on food supplies, and gotten the ketchup reward for Pikachu. Well, for Serena, let's say that there is no way to keep a record of what she had bought. Ash wasn't complaining carrying her bags for her, much to her surprise and happiness. Just as they were passing an electronic's store, something caught Ash's eye. He excused himself from Serena for a minute to buy something he wanted. Serena thought that it was okay if he was to buy something for his own and made no resistance. Ash entered the shop and picked up the thing that had caught his eye, he checked the price and found it was under his budget. _Training would be much more fun with this._ He thought.

He brought the small box and stepped outside, and then followed Serena back to the Center with her bags. He was smiling to himself as he thought of the new accessory he had just bought, something he wanted for sometime, but couldn't do so because he never found one good enough.

"What is the thing you have bought Ash?", Serena asked him, curious about what it was to get this much of a positive vibe to Ash.

Ash showed the box to her and she pouted. "What? Don't like it?", said Ash.

"It gives you all the more reason to avoid me and be with yourself!", she said.

"Well, don't worry, this is for training.", said Ash.

"It better be used only for training then.", Serena said in a semi-threatening voice.

Ash smiled to himself as he put the clip portable player into his pocket and went into the center.

* * *

**And cut. Well, I know that you guys were expecting something better off of me for the thing I told you, but don't worry, you will know what Ash meant by using it for training and all. So how was the battle. It wasn't long, but I tried my best to make it good enough for close combat style.**

**Whats up with Serena and her sudden resolve. one would think that she wouldn't wan't to see Ash again. And what about this dangerous side of her. Well, girls are dangerous when they are angry so, no way for me too explain that.**

**Hey hey hey! I crossed three thousand. This chapter istwice as long as most of my other chapters! Yipeeeeeeeee...**

**Well, celebrations aside, expect a new chapter to be up around Sunday. Man, I almost fell asleep due to sickness while writing this one. Acchhhoooo... Pardon me.**

**So long, Copycat out.**


	16. Chapter 16

**Hey guys! How are you all? Am fine here and gonna write another one of the chapters of this small project known as Broken Dreams. Well, first of all, this is the chapter where a few revelations will be made, new decisions would be taken, and the reason (mine own vision that I had thought of, sorry if I were to use anything that goes against the story of the anime, as you will read ahead, as I am going to use some elements that maybe were shown during Unova, but, I didn't watch that series so it's all out of my imagination) for the intense training that Ash seems to be giving to Charizard.**

**Plus, here I will be adding one of the few ways that Ash would start managing his immense collection of Pokemon that he carries with himself at all times. It wouldn't be perfect this early on(or the way I intend it to turn out in the end), but would surely work good for Ash in these chapters, and when completed, will allow more dynamic battle sequences, plus it will surely keep people guessing on which Pokemon Ash can use at any time. Serena would also get this upgrade for sure, but her usage would be less dynamic and more (girly) show-off. Thus, all in all, this chapter would introduce one of the things that I envisioned the pokemon world should have.**

**I have started writing this chapter in the evening of Saturday and will continue working on it till around Sunday noon, and if it's not done by then, then I would have surely completed it and uploaded it by Sunday night, or Monday morning. There might be some delay due to taking my Mom to the hospital for a checkup(we met with a little road accident yesterday).**

**So, yeah it is a challenge with this hectic schedule and with all the homework and projects, but hey, I love challenges! Game on!**

**Disclaimer:(Man, I need to always remember to do this, or flamers are gonna eat me away!) Yo, Tajiri owns Pokemon, not me.**

* * *

"Ash Ketchum! You tell me right now why we are doing this or else I am going to make you sorry for ever being born!", Serena shouted as she clutched onto Braviary's feathers for dear life, as a huge bolt of lightning missed them by mere inches.

"Training! It's a great way for training our Bird types! Plus the rain will be helping all of our pokemon who are weak against water! I have told Pikachu and Goodra to go a little easy!", Ash shouted back, with his mp3 player clipped onto the sleeve of his left hand, and one wireless headset stuck in his ear, while the other one was stuck into Charizard's ears, at full volume.

Goodra, Pikachu and Gible, who was shivering a little due to the rain were behind them, riding on Staraptor, Swellow and Talonfalme respectively, who, like his rider, had some trouble maintaining his flight due his typing, while Gardevior and Gallade were now on riding Pidgeot, leading the way. Goodra and Pikachu were doing their most powerful Rain Dance and Thunder attacks to whip up a devastating thunder storm that was sure to do some damage to the land underneath them.

"But, why this way? Are you trying to get us killed?!", Serena shouted back. She was now sure that Ash had lost it, and she was regretting coming out here with a nut case. _Well, I couldn't have left him alone in this state too. If he is going easy right now, then I wonder what could have happened if he was alone doing all of this._

Ash was silent at this, he continued to focus on the song and the maneuvers he was working on with Charizard. Ash always thought that Charizard was a great flyer, but he needed to improve a lot, if he wanted to be as good as Pidgeot and Staraptor.

Charizard was a really prideful Pokemon, and he still remembered the promise Ash had made to him before he left for Kalos. And now Ash was fulfilling his promise, so there was no way he was going to back down now. Charizard tried to keep his mind on the catchy tune that was playing in the player to keep himself focused on what he was doing, but the memory of that day came flooding back to him.

* * *

_Flashback_

_Ash was going to leave for the Viridian City Airport, and he was back at Professor Oak's lab, meeting all of his Pokemon before he started a new journey._

_"Alright guys, so it's time I brought you some new friends from Kalos, and I am sure that you guys would love to meet them!", Ash said as he was surrounded by all of his Pokemon. Bayleef did a body slam on him, and then bent over the taken down teenage and nuzzled with him. Bulbasaur helped him on his feet as Bayleef was removed off of Ash by Charizard. As Ash and Pikachu shared a chuckle on the antics of his Pokemon. _

_"Ash!", came a voice from behind him. Ash turned around and saw Tracy was there, with his sketchbook out. _

_"Hey Tracy! How are you doing?", Ash said as he walked up to his older friend. "I am fine here Ash, I came here to tell you that you have a call from the Characific Valley."_

_"Characific Valley...", Ash said thoughtfully as he looked at Charizard. Charizard's head drooped down as he remembered the reason why he had actually left the valley in the first place, and only Ash knew about it. _

_"Tell Lisa that I am coming.", Ash said to Tracy as he walked to Charizard, and placed a comforting hand over his head. "It's okay buddy, it wasn't your fault, you really are strong. Now will you come in with me and talk to Lisa?"_

_Charizard nodded slowly as Pikachu climbed back onto Ash's shoulder and the trio then started walking towards the lab. They went inside and found the large screen of the videophone showing Lisa's face and another Charizard with a pink bow on it's horn. Lisa's face had an apologetic look while Charla had a look of defiance on her face. Without any other exchange, Lisa went straight to the point, "Ash, thank you for bringing Charizard in with you. Charizard, I want to tell you that both me and Charla, are feeling very apologetic on the terms that you had left. You are a very strong Pokemon, but sometimes slip ups may happen during intense battles and..."_

_She trailed off as Charla took over the screen. She roared a little and pointed to herself, and then she made a few more gestures, all while roaring. It seemed as though she was scolding Charizard for some reason. Then she huffed up and stormed out from the room._

_Charizard's head drooped down once more. Tears were cascading down from his eyes. Although Ash couldn't understand what happened, but he knew that it was something serious._

_"Charizard, is Charla angry with you because you may have lost some fight.", Ash asked. Charizard nodded, with his eyes filled with anger. "Well I promise to you, I am going to help you get a lot more stronger."_

_Saying so, Ash went forward and hugged Charizard, who returned the warm gesture. Tracy took the time to sketch the warm scene in front of himself, while Lisa smiled._

_Flashback End._

* * *

Ash had found that it was actually a really powerful Gyarados that had somehow entered the waters of the Valley, and had defeated Charizard with an extremely powerful Hydro Pump. Ash had taken it seriously and was now determined to make Charizard to both of the two types he was weak to, Electric and Water, and that was why he took the decision to train all of his Pokemon to resist their weaknesses. Pikachu didn't need much training in this matter, because he was always able to take down types that were stronger than his. And Goodra was the only other Pokemon that didn't need any type of training in this field. Goodra already had a lot of training resisting fairy type moves, and ice type moves, due to Ash using him many times in Kalos gym battles where he could have been at a disadvantage.

Charizard swerved towards the right and saved himself and from getting electrocuted with a thousand volts.

"Very good Charizard. Now it's time for everybody else to start training with me on these movements.", said Ash.

Serena rolled her eyes at this. "Well, you can train on ahead, I will be going back to the camp."

She asked Braviary to lower down, who obliged, and they zoomed towards the small camp that they had made for the day. Gardevior and Gallade too returned, while Ash climbed onto Staraptor to start the next training session.

Serena returned Braviary, and sat down beside her own tent. She had put up Ash's tent too, a difficult, but a prideful task for a girl like herself who believed that these were all the responsibilities of a boy. But it wasn't Ash's fault. Every night, Ash would leave Serena alone in her tent, while he would go to sleep under some tree or other shelter. Serena at first thought that Ash had become claustrophobic, but soon dismissed that idea, when she remembered that Ash managed well in small areas in the day. She thought about what might be bugging Ash, as she started to take out the food supplies, and set up a temporary stove with Charmeleon's and Gardevior's help, while Gallade left to find some berries so all of the Pokemon could have enough food, even if Ash had bought plenty of supplies.

When Serena was stirring the soup that she was making for dinner, she heard a loud howl in the distance. Then a small squeaky scream.

"Some one needs help!", Serena said to Gardevior. She nodded to her, and they both ran towards the direction from where they thought the sound had originated. She thought that she had seen as if Ash had heard it too and was returning towards the camp, but as the problem was presented before her, she couldn't help but put everything else aside for the time being. A little girl was backed onto a tree, by an Ursaring. Serena threw a stone at the large bear Pokemon to take it's attention away from the child.

"Leve her alone!", she said. When she had the attention of the large beast, she went for her pokeballs, and was terrified to find that she didn't have any on her at the time. _How melodramatic, I try to save a girl without any means to save her._

The Ursaring ran towards them with his claws shining into a slash attack. Gardevior stepped forward and used Protect to save them, but the Ursaring was relentless, and Gardevior was starting to tire out at this point. An unprecedented Take Down threw her towards a tree, which fell on top of her. "Gardevior!", Serena shouted out of worry.

"I am ok Serena-WATCH OUT!", Gardevior suddenly shouted back at her. Serena was about to turn around as she was pulled out of the way of a powerful Focus Blast, and two arms were holding her close, in a protective manner. She noticed that her savior was Ash. But, soon saw another Focus Blast coming towards them. Ash noticed this too. He swung his arm forward, as a small minimized pokeball slipped out of his sleeve, and just as he was returning his hand to a forward facing position, touched the tip of his index finger, after which it came to it's real size. Ash then threw the pokeball forward and it revealed his Hawlucha, primed for action. Hawlucha attacked Ursaring with a Karate Chop, and then with a Flying Press, scaring it away.

Ash thanked Hawlucha for saving them. Then she shifted his attention to this distressed girl in his arms.

"Ash-Ash, I was so scared!", Serena sobbed in Ash's chest. "It's okay, that Pokemon is not going to hurt us anymore.", Ash said trying to comfort her. _She can intimidate me to death, but is so scared of a wild Ursaring?_

"Let's go.", Ash said to her. Serena nodded, but then she remembered about Gardevior and the little girl. She turned her gaze and found that Gallade was helping Gardevior by taking care of the tree on top of her with a powerful Psycho Cut, but the little girl was nowhere to be found. _What was a small girl doing her? And where did she go? Maybe she went back to whomever she had come out with._

Ash escorted Serena back to their camp. They quietly had dinner that night, and just as Ash was about to leave for the night, Serena went to him and held his hand, stopping him from advancing. She had small tears in her eyes, which were full off fear.

"Don't leave me alone tonight, please Ash?", she said. Ash nodded to her. He sat down beneath a tree nearby Serena's tent, where Pikachu curled up in his lap. Serena took one last look at Ash, before she went inside her tent and retired for the day.

* * *

**And that's that. So, I guess that it must be pretty obvious about Charizard now. And, about the thingy I told you guys for Ash. Well, it's not that great, or ready right now, but I will give you a clear description about it in the next chap.**

**So long, Copycat out.**


	17. Chapter 17

**Hey guys!(PS: I am probably gonna start rambling after this, so If I'd be you, I would skip to the disclaimer, but I may be giving some answers, or some spoilers in my rambling, so if you want any of those, get ready for a load of stupidity...)**

** Well, I have got to be honest on this one, I started writing late. I was supposed to start writing by Saturday night, but started on Sunday morning, so this chapter is probably gonna be a little small, or a little later uploaded with reference to my other chapters. So, I apologize in advanced if any of the respective things do occur. Now, next with the flamers, one guy said in his guest review that I should stop writing, so, my answer to that guy is this, stop reading my stuff then dude, I am not forcing you to read any of my stories(no this is my only story yet, but we will see if I do any others...)**

**(Kids, skip this entire paragraph or it would be a year's bad luck)**

**Now another flamer, possibly a girl, a feminist, or both. So, no man / dude / sis, I am not trying to disrespect girls by showing Serena as a mindless freak that goes on thrashing Ash if he doesn't listen to her. I mean come on, even as a guy, if my best pal would just start behaving in this type of manner, I'd be ready to kick him in the groin, if it would get his shit together. Plus, Serena has a crush on Ash and the one thing we can't forget about her, she is a girl, and to tell the truth, I myself never want to be on the receiving end of a girl's rage. I did survive a few of their rampages(only humor intended), but still there are somethings about being a guy that may or may not be in each person's personality. Like for example, I myself don't understand, why girls love shopping. But, I don't make horrified faces like other guys when I have to go shopping with girls.**

**(This part has been added way afterwards, since I had written this many, many weeks ago...)**

**Hey guys, I got my lappy back!**

**And now am on a frenzy to finish this chapter and get it out pronto! So will see ya later...**

**Disclaimer: (Let's try it Jar Jar Binks way) Meesa not owns Pokemon.**

* * *

"Target's asleep.", whispered a dark figure from behind one of the tree branches into a small device.

"Alpha sweep will be initiated in t-minus five minutes, base will be ready by then.", the device beeped up. A malicious smile crept onto the face of the dark figure.

Under the tree, two more figures were curled up to protect themselves from the increasing cold of the night. Pikachu was placed into Ash's bag, while Ash was clutching onto it to give Pikachu as much body heat as possible. He was breathing heavy, and was sure to catch a cold. He regretted the fact that Pikachu was adamant about sleeping outside with him.

_Damn it Pikachu! Why are you so stubborn, now you are going to catch a cold because you wouldn't leave me alone..._

Pikachu shivered inside the bag. It didn't look good. Although Pikachu was a tough cookie, he still was recovering from his injuries from the bullet wound. And now he was not supposed to fight against the cold conditions of the night. So Ash made a decision. He stood up, shivering from the cold, and went to the small tent that had been put up by him for Serena. He slowly unzipped the zipper, and peeked inside. Serena was sleeping peacefully inside her sleeping bag. Ash thought that it was better not to wake her up at this hour. _Plus who wants to travel with her in her grumpy mode.._.

So, Ash carefully took out his sleeping bag, and placed it near Serena. He took the shivering rodent out of the bag. Pikachu had started feeling feverish, so Ash quickly placed him inside the bag. As he picked himself off of the ground, he noticed that the lump inside Serena's sleeping bag was shivering too. Ash crept to the side, and poked into it, to see that even Serena was feeling the effects of the low temperatures.

Ash quickly went to Serena's bag, and took out her pokeballs. He took Charmeleon out. Charmeleon yawned and was about to announce her prescence, when Ash quickly quietened her down. "Please share your warmth with them.", Ash whispered to her. Charmeleon nodded at once and went between the two sleeping bags. The shivering of both the girl and the rodent decreased by a large degree. Ash smiled to this, and went outside the tent to take his previous position.

As he placed himself at the foot of the very same tree he was lying underneath before, Ash looked up to the sky. He had a sad smile on his face as he remembered the good old days, when he would keep on star gazing for hours with Pikachu. How he would celebrate over his victory on a gym leader. His small celebration every time he would catch a new pokemon. Ash yawned slightly. Ash didn't feel all that cold anymore. Maybe this night he would finally able to get some real sleep...

Unbeknownst to him, he still wasn't getting the sleep he really needed. His eyes had gotten blurry enough for him not to notice the slow creeping fog over his body. But, his ears were still very much functional. Out of the blue, he heard a loud bang, then a female voice crying out his name for help.

"Ash! Help!", Serena cried out. Ash sat up at once, but struggled to keep his balance. He turned towards the camp and made out five figures dressed in a black outfit with a blurry red letter on the chest. "Team Rocket! Leave my friends ALONE!", Ash shouted to the intruders, his eyes suddenly getting a blue flare. He tried his best to aim a punch to the midsection of the first figure he could make out. The grunt stepped back and caught Ash's fist. Ash raised his head enough to find another grunt leaning over him, behind whom he made out a yellow figure blurring towards the other grunts, which was quickly subdued by a large rock, and a blast of fire shot by him that was overcome by a large volume of water. Two white blurs had also came out of the the trees startled by all of this commotion, but they were hit in the face by a black sticky substance. The grunt grabbed Ash by the collar and said, "Nighty-night, Ash Ketchum."

Ash would have cringed with the amount of venom in the grunt's voice, if it would not have been followed by a blow to his head. Ash felt dizzier than before after this. He could hear faint sounds of Serena's cries, who was cradling in her arms a beat up looking Pikachu, and her Charmeleon's continuous attempts to protect her trainer. Gallade kept on fighting his best through the sticky gunk shot, but the type effectiveness had slowly started to get to him. Gardevior had already fainted after taking a tremendous blow to her head by the same boulder like pokemon that had taken Pikachu down. Ash tried to crawl forward and get a footing, but he collapsed before he could stand up. Before losing consciousness, Ash heard one of the grunts speaking, "Alpha sweep successful. All the pokemon have been taken.."

* * *

_Where am I?_

It was the question that Ash had in his mind. The floor beneath him and the whole of his surroundings were completely white. He looked around to see that the surroundings near him were all vaguely familiar. Familiar to him like the place that he had been born to. As he was starting to realize his location, colors started to fade into his surroundings.

He was standing on Route 1. A seemingly huff yellow rodent was tied to his waist. Ash was back, back to the day it all started. The sudden thought of that made Ash feel excited. He started walking back, towards Pallet Town, slowly increasing his pace, till he broke out into a full sprint. Pikachu, who then did not hold the respect he held now for Ash, was surprised by the sudden change in their direction. He somehow clamped himself to Ash's back, taking a seemingly piggyback ride from him. As Ash kept on running, the road to his house seemed to have kept on getting longer. Then, suddenly, a small Caterpie poked it's head out of the ground, where he accidentally gout attached to Ash. He slowly started glowing and evolved into a Metapod, and before Ash could know, he was a Butterfree. A Pidgeotto that was poking the ground, searching for food, was surprised by the amount of speed the boy was running, so he suspiciously started following the boy, and unknowingly, evolved into a Pidgeot. A Bulbasaur was crawling out of one of the bushes, and as he extened his vines to grab himself a fruit, his vines got stuck to Ash's legs. Ash felt that suddenly he was dragging a lot of pokemon with him, but his enthusiasm did not fail. Before he knew, he was accompanied by a Charizard, a Wartortle, a Kingler, many Tauros, a Haunter and the list kept on going. But he didn't stop to look at the plethora of pokemon that were following him. He had just a single aim now, get home to his mother.

Although the road was seemingly longer than before, Ash finally reached his home. His pokemon at his side. His eyes were full of tears. As he opened the door to the porch of the house, his blood froze. A loud scream was heard from inside, and then a thud that indicated a table was overturned. Ash ran inside, and was horrified by the scene in front of him. His mother was sprawled in front of him with a lifeless expression. A man was standing beside her. He was wearing a red jacket, and light blue jeans. His raven black hair was covered with a red cap. The man slowly turned around and Ash was horrified to see his face. A complete replica of his own, without the lightning marks on the cheeks. The man started saying something to him, but Ash was not listening. His head hurt, as he processed this visual in front of him.

_I really did kill my mother?_

The older Ash walked towards him and placed his hands over his shoulder. He tried to break him free from his daze, but was not successful. Ash's pokemon were all standing gloomily outside the house, all of them were sorry for their trainer. Then slowly, the visual started disappearing from in front of Ash. One by one his pokemon were fading away. As Ash slowly collapsed to the floor.

* * *

The feeling of a slight wind blowing over his face woke Ash up. He got up, with a slight stinging sensation in the back of his head. He was still shaken up from the visual he had seen in front of himself. He looked around to find himself to be surrounded by, what seemingly was their camp, or whatever was left of it.

A bit of paper, pinned to the ground with a small knife that was next to hi head, was fluttering due to the refreshing morning breeze that was blowing. Ash took it and read what was written onto it.

_**If you want to see them alive, come to Silph Co. in at least five days...**_

Ash only read this much, after which he tore the paper apart. As he tore it, his chocolate brown eyes had changed into a sky blue shade. Forgetting all about his weakness, he took out a map that he had kept between the folds of his jacket, and started sprinting towards Saffron City's direction with tremendous speeds.

* * *

**And that's it for this update. I know, I know, it was boring, seemingly incomplete, not that much action packed. But hey, am just fourteen, so I still need to improve this. All I can say is that after this chapter, shit just gets real.**

**So long, Copycat out.**


	18. Chapter 18

**Hey guys! Wassup! So here I am with another chapter of my story, Broken Dreams. But, but, but... This chapter is a big but. Remember kids, if you are no older than thirteen, reading on would be a grave mistake and would cause a year's bad luck.(I know, I know. That is the most overused dialogue to make children get scared away from these themes, well it never stopped me as a kid, so kids if you can handle it, read on, my job was to warn you.)**

**Yeah, yeah. I know that many of my readers have become quite bashful because I haven't been updating that much. But, life always gets in the way. So, sorry for this late update. I really need a lot of time to fit each character around in thee story. I don't plan on using many OCs other than the major one I have thought about, but I may need some good characters afterwards. I have big plans for this chapter to be as dark and gory in the end as I can possibly imagine. Mysterious too. But, we will see about that. So, without further ado, the chapter shall begin.**

**Disclaimer: (Seriously, stupidest idea ever to be used with fanfics, I mean who will be offended by a harmless fic that many people enjoy, and many don't.) I do not own Pokemon. If I would have, then it wouldn't have been so unrealistic and stupid at most times.**

* * *

_Secret Rocket lab_

_Location Unknown_

"Detonating in t-minus five, four, three, two, one."

A rocket grunt pressed a small red button that had been supplied to him by the weapon's arsenal. A small, controlled explosion was triggered in front of him, where he himself had set up the charges for the testing of the new charges that the rocket scientists had developed for their small excavation trip in Orre.

"The explosion is of the right magnitude, hopefully it will not cause a cave-in during our expedition to the Sinnoh region.", said the grunt.

"How is the testing of the new equipment going.", came a voice from behind him.

The rocket's blood froze. He quickly turned around and took an attentive position. "Giovanni sir, you didn't need to have come yourself to check the progress. I was about to send in the reports to you just as..."

He stopped as Giovanni put up his hand and motioned him to stop talking and answer him. "Sir, the equipment is giving excellent results. Our expedition will be..."

But again stopped as Giovanni turned around and started walking away. As he stepped outside, Domino came inside and said promptly and with an air of authority, "Hand over all of the equipment!"

"Y-yes mam.", the grunt stuttered and quickly he gave the small bag of gizmos to the rocket agent. Domino then nodded to him, and he got the message to leave immediately.

As the grunt left, Domino started putting small devices along the perimeter of the wall, then she picked up all of the documents and threw them on the floor, took out a small lighter and set all of them on fire. Then she went out of the lab, and pressed a small button on a device, destroying the whole building.

The grunt stood, gawking at how the most advanced lab Team Rocket had possessed was disposed off so easily. But, what he didn't know, was that the lab wasn't the only thing that was being disposed off of. He turned around and found a gun barrel pointing straight to his temple. The last thing he heard was the laughter of the boss he was so loyal to, and the loud gun-shot of a desert pidgeot.

* * *

_Somewhere near the forests of Saffron City_

A Pidgey was waking up from a good night's sleep, on a branch of a Cheri tree. He looked around himself and found the lush greenery to be basking in the glow of the sun-rise. He was mesmerized by the beauty of the forest, and started chirping happily to announce morning to it's fellow Pokemon. The other Pokemon in the forest started waking up too. As the morning activities started, a small commotion had begun on the edge of the forest.

Two Bellossom had started crying apparently for no reason. When asked by a Sunflora, they said that they were knocked down by a black figure, that was glowing blue. Confused by this description, the other Pokemon thought what kind of a Pokemon had they encountered. Some feared that it was the wrath of a legendary, while others thought that it was a new Pokemon in the area that wanted to gain some dominance over their territory. All in all, they didn't have any good ideas about that Pokemon / Figure.

Unbeknownst to them, that figure had already left the forest. It was speeding through the streets of the noisy city that they always avoided. It sped by the dangerous humans with ease, and dashed from between and over the large metal boxes in which the humans would always move around in. All with that mysterious glow shrouding over it's body. It ran fast enough that the city's blue haired humans who would always lecture other humans, were powerless to stop it.

As the figure sped by one of the traffic cameras, the camera was fast enough to grab a picture. The officer in charge made out a few significant observations, like the figure wearing a black hoodie, black jeans, and was holding a paper flyer in it's hands, that proved it to be human, but it still did not give enough evidence to reveal the person's identity.

The person was speeding by the streets, seemingly being carried by a super human strength. He jumped over the benches and posts as though they were small pebbles in his path. The person continued his mad dash to the heart of the city, where many skyscrapers were built, around one magnificent building, the Silph Co.

The Silph building had been closed off by the company, due to the fact that it had been targeted many times by criminal organisations, and due to the low security access. Therefore, the company had moved to Fuchsia City that provided it to be in sync with the trade route, as well as getting a healthier and safer environment for it's employees. But, it seemed that there was something else, other than the city's authorities, that made the old office building, still seem bustling with business.

The darkly appareled person slowed down as he reached the heart of the city. He came to a stand still in front of the Silph Building, and looked up to it, with eyes gleaming blue.

* * *

_Silph Building_

_Secret Rocket Base, a few minutes after the mysterious person arrived outside the building._

The Hideout was completely busy with the new task. The updation of the security systems had to be done before the arrival of their enemy. All of Team Rocket had been possessed with the information of their target, and some extent of his newly developing abilities. They were informed that the target would be arriving in at least two days, and before then, the building has to go into maximum security lockdown. All evidence of their activities there was to be removed, locked away if too important, otherwise destroyed. All personnel were supposed to be armed and primed to kill the intruder on sight. Giovanni himself was overlooking the operations til this morning before leaving for their new base at Orre. This proved that the situation might become serious too, if their boss was on his guard at all times. Although now, the grunts were unsure that these new orders were being given by Giovanni at all. The rumor of another benefactor behind Giovanni was growing in the grunts like a plague. But, no one dared to question his authority at all.

Suddenly, the alarm in the prison area went off. Domino, who was in the vicinity of this area, ran to check what was wrong. The Rocket prison area was so sophisticated, that if even a tiny foreign leaf would enter through any of it's vents, or through one of the drainage systems, the alarm would be sounded. At this very moment, the prison only held the companion of the largest difficulty in their path of success, the companion of Ash Ketchum, and they all knew that soon her presence in the hideout, was to bring the final fight to them. But, it was not possible that Ash was already here, how could he cover the distance of three days in a single day with no Pokemon. But, she pushed these questions to the back of her mind and focused on checking thesituation now.

All of the security present in the building went to the prison area, expecting a huge attack. But one of the officers found out that it was a false alarm. The senior officers were scolding their junior operatives for their negligence, but stopped as soon as they saw Domino enter.

"What is happening here?", she asked. "Nothing Mam, it was a false alarm.", one of the senior officers replied.

This did not convince Domino, and she went on to check the inner holding whose entrance was outside the security room, next to the Poke holdings. As Domino entered the holding, she expected that an extremely furious boy was going to tackle her down to the ground the next instant. But, it didn't come to her. She looked around and saw that their prisoner had woken up due to the alarm, and they had become frantic due to this.

"What's happening?", Serena, who was locked up behind her cell door, asked.

Domino avoided her question, and continued to check for breaches in the walls or the other surfaces. Serena continued to ask the same question, while she became increasingly frustrated at being ignored. But, she forgot her frustration as soon as she heard many gunshots outside. Domino was about to run outside the area, when the gunshots became silent all of the sudden. She cautiously went to her belt and was about to get to her gun, but the prison door opened up and revealed the person that Serena had been waiting for all this time to come and save her.

Ash kicked Domino in her abdomen before she could shoot him, with enough force to knock her out. Then he took the gun on her belt and shot the locks that were holding back Serena from escaping. Serena hugged him close with all her might.

"Where are our Pokemon?", Ash asked her softly. "I think in the room that is on the left.", Serena replied. They ran outside the area, and went into the room. Many pokeballs were stacked into counters, and Ash and Serena's were right now at the sides. Ash picked up his bag that contained all of his Pokemon, while Serena took her belt, and her bags. Ash rummaged through his bag and took out a pokeball, which had a lightning bolt etched onto it's front. He released the Pokemon inside, and was met with a delighted yellow rodent.

"Pi-Pikachu!", Pikachu cried as it hugged Ash. Ash smiled after being reunited with his longtime partner.

Then he took Serena's hand, and with Pikachu on his shoulder, sped outside. While going outside, he asked Serena about Gardevior and Gallade.

"Gardevior had Teleported them away with the last of her strength, just as you had lost your consciousness. Don't worry, they said that they would find us as soon as possible." Ash nodded, and then started to guide Serena out of the building.

Serena and Pikachu both expected to meet some resistance from Team Rocket, but they found none. Finally, Ash brought them out of the wretched building.

* * *

_A Dark Room_

The room had a long couch and a computer, with a seat in front of it. It was illuminated by the dim light of the computer screen, that was showing some available videos that were ready to be played. A Figure entered the room, only his outline was visible, due to the dim lighting. He sat down onto the seat that was in front of the computer.

"That was quite impressive, finishing the fight in less than ten minutes. Now, let us see how you did it?", the figure said in a questioning tone.

He scrolled down the screen, and selected the last video that was available to be played.

_The video revealed a dark hooded figure looking upwards. The busy street of Saffron City could be seen in the background. Then the figure ran towards the right side. The video scene changed to show a different angle in which, was actually the side of the Silph Building. He bent down and picked a grass blade, then walked to the ventilation openings and put it inside._

After watching this, the figure started laughing out.

"Serves those rockets right, they always boasted that they could detect any intrusions as small as leaves, beaten by grass blades!"

_Then the figure ran back to the entrance and entered. The figure then ran through the long corridors, trying to find the source of the alarm. As he turned one of the corners, one poor man was startled by this new arrival. But before he could say or do anything to alert his companions, the hooded figure took out a small glinting knife and flung himself onto the man, effectively killing him in a single stroke. Then figure sprang up from his crouching position and ran forward. Another camera with a different angle showed the figure from the front angle that revealed him to have gleaming blue eyes. Then it turned into another corridor. The camera change then showed that the figure crouched down, and another figure, of a girl wearing a white outfit entered one of the rooms, then it came out and enter another that was next to it. The dark figure once again stood up, and ran to the room that the girl had previously entered. The camera angle changed once again, and showed a large room with a huge table in the middle, and over thirty people, some of whom were wearing black outfits, and others who were wearing white, out of which, the black outfitted ones were being scolded by the others, who were apparently the superiors. The door to the room abruptly flew open, with the dark figure lunging in and knocking down one of the people nearest to the door. This startled all of the others inside the room. Then the dark figure picked up the body of the man, who had been killed by him already. As the others in the room recovered from the shock, they took out their guns and started shooting the dark figure, who was effectively shielded by the limp body of their limp comrade. Then, as many of the men started reloading their guns, the dark figure lunged forward again, and kicked the nearest man on the face, knocking him down to the ground, blood coming out of his nose, and then skull cracking due to the force with which his head had hit the ground. Then he jumped from his second victim, and lunged onto the startled third, ending his life with his small kitchen knife, spluttering his blood all over the nearest man had acknowledged the fact that he was probably next on the list, so he readied to defend himself. But, the dark figure was faster. He jumped up and grasped his armed hand. Before the man could fire, the dark figure had already bent his arm with super human force, and thus, as he fired, the man shot himself in his own mouth. Then the dark figure took the gun from his hand, and shot most of the remaining people left in the room. The last man remaining had taken shelter under the table. The Dark figure pulled him out and said, "Where are the prisoners?"_

_"The-the next room!", the man sputtered out. "Please don't kill me!"_

_The dark figure looked him in the face sarcastically, and then he snapped his neck. Then he threw the gun, and looked at the camera, and threw a vase at it._

"Well, that's it then, looks like the kid has shed his skin, and now I guess I should go and vomit.", said the man as he quickly up from his seat and left the room in a hurry.

* * *

**Well here it is then. How was it guys. I know, I have some nasty murderous imagination, but that is all I could project out.**

**So long, Copycat out.**


	19. Chapter 19

**Hey, hey, hey! How are you all? Copycat's back with his story... Sorry if I seem a little bit too cheery, but I feel really light headed this morning(PS. Tomorrow is my Chem. Terminal exam one, and I am always light headed before the day of my exams. I mean who wouldn't be after reading 400 pages straight?)**

**Sorry for the slow update rate, but my terminal exams have come and so this is the only update that could be done in this time. My exams will end on 15th of June, after which I will get enough time to write properly...**

**So, the last chapter showed Ash's success in saving Serena and Pikachu from the hands of Team Rocket. But, where are the psychic siblings? Who was the mysterious man in the end? Where did Ash learn to fight like this? Why am I ranting?(I feel that many of you are face-palming by now)**

**Well, only one of the questions will be answered in this chapter... And the group will finally be moving onward to the next important destination. Many of you might have guessed that, many of you might have not. But, we will get there eventually.**

**Disclaimer: (Why do people need to do this in the start of every single chapter. Oh well here goes!) I don't own Pokemon. I did own a DS once, and a copy of Heart Gold, but it got busted for good.(No, I am not gonna tell you how it got busted!)**

* * *

"Freeze!"

A police officer shouted with his gun pointing at the only open exit from the Silph. building just as Ash, Serena and Pikachu made their way out of the they could be in enough view to be identified, Ash swung Serena onto his back, and Pikachu clutched onto his hooded head for dear life, as Ash sped out of the building at a breakneck speed. The Officer was left in the dust, dazed at the strange thing that had happened to him. He was just patrolling outside the Silph. building, when he heard gun shots being fired inside.

"Code 6, affirmative. One of the suspects has been identified as the same hooded person that had been running through the streets of Saffron thirty minutes ago. He seemed to be with a Pokemon and another person, both unidentifiable. I need immediate backup response at my location, there still may be some hostiles inside.", the man spoke into his transmitter.

* * *

_"Ash no! Gallade! Ash is down, go help him"_

_"Charmeleon, use Flamethrower!"_

_"Stop that rat."_

_"Gardevior, are you ok?"_

_"No Serena!"_

Gardevior woke up with a yelp. She looked around herself and found that she was in a forest. Her wounds had been covered with leaves. She took one of the leaves of, expecting stinging pain, but as she removed it, she found that there was no wound left. She examined her other leaves, and found the same result.

_How long have I been out? _she thought.

_Three days._ said a voice in her head. _I was beginning to think that maybe you hit your head too hard sis._

_Brother! Where are you? _Gardevior asked him.

"Right behind you.", Gallade said in a bored tone. He was carrying a few berries. Gardevior ran up to him and hugged him, making him drop all the berries.

"Hey! Whats the big idea?! It took me two hours to find all of them.", Gallade said annoyed.

"Sorry.", Gardevior squeaked. "Here have some", Gallade handed here an Oran berry, which she happily ate. Then she remembered.

"Where's Ash and Serena?", she asked him.

Gallade's expression became a little grim. Gardevior expected the worst, but then Gallade said, "Serena was taken the day we were attacked, just as you teleported both of us to this place.". Gardevior's expression became sorrowful at this, but Gallade continued, "You were critical after that, thank Arceus that I was able to learn Heal Pulse out of the desperation, or you could have been done for good. After taking care of your wounds, I scouted the area, and tried to amplify my Psychic powers so I could try to get a read onto Ash or Serena's location, or maybe even get Pikachu since he has a higher brain range. But, someone forgot to teach that to me.", Gallade said.

Gardevior stuck out her tongue at the last comment. "If you weren't so hell bent on making Ash train you in Physical aspects, then I could have taught you how to radar."

"Well, now that you are up, you should recover yourself, and then we can track the two of them down, alright?", Gallade said.

"But.." started Gardevior, but she was interrupted by Gallade. "I am sure that they are both fine, Ash is strong, andhe won't let anything happen to your favorite trainer."

Gardevior nodded, she thought to give another clever comment to get back to her brother, but she decided against it. Then she laid back onto the ground. _Brother, you can act all tough and uncaring, but, you will always have that soft side of yours._

* * *

Ash had stopped running and, and was now walking in a leisurely pace with Serena walking beside him. Pikachu was back on his favorite spot on Ash's shoulder. But, things were not as easy at seemed. Both Pikachu and Serena wanted to know the secret of Ash's incredible sprint speed, and also the reason of why they didn't encounter any trouble from the rockets during their grand escape. But,neither knew how to phrase their question. They saw that they were starting to get nearer to the Pokemon center. Ash took his hood off, much to the surprise of his other two companions.

"Ash, what are you doing? Someone may recognize you.", hushed Serena slowly into his ears. As Ash turned towards her, she shivered a little, the soft chocolate brown eyes that she loved so much were not there anymore, but two orbs, that were electric blue with an intimidating effect, were staring back at her. She was intimidated a little, but she also felt a small blush creeping onto her face. They gave him a completely different look. And she surely felt attracted to this new different look. It almost seemed that he was bustling with confidence and strength.

"Let's see who will recognize me now.", Ash said. Pikachu was shocked to see this new feature of his Pikapi. He wasn't sure that he had seen him do anything to his eyes, but he was going to find out what was the cause and effect of this new feature. But, for now he was not going to complain about it since it allowed his Pikapi to be less vigilant and a lot more free outside. Pikachu then enjoyed a scratch behind his ear that he missed so much. It had been a long time since his Pikapi had done so.

Serena smiled softly at this small gesture by Ash. Since that fateful day, Ash had stopped doing so many small things that defined his personality, but slowly he was regaining them. Slowly, but surely.

They entered the Pokemon center, and much to Serena's annoyance, many of the female trainers there in the lobby were staring at her companion. Ash, as expected was completely oblivious to the impressed stares that he was receiving from the females.

_Typical from Ash. _thought Serena.

As he went up to the front desk, he cleared his throat a little to get the attention of Nurse Joy, whose back was turned to them as she was currently, and seemingly talking on the phone with someone.

"Ok, don't worry about it sister. Sorry for that.", she said as she looked towards the latest visitor to their establishment. As soon as she did so, Nurse Joy's cheeks flared red. Serena rolled her eyes at this. _Not Nurse Joy too... _thought Serena.

"Can we please get a room?", Ash asked politely. Nurse Joy nodded. "You are lucky, we just have one room left."

Then she frowned as she noticed that they were only asking for a single room. "Are you two going to share the room?", she asked with a raised eyebrow. Ash calmly replied, "Wouldn't think of it. It's for my friend here.", then he pointed to Serena.

"Then what about you?", Nurse Joy asked.

"I will manage.", he answered. Nurse Joy simply took out the room key and handed it to him. Serena knew what Ash meant by managing. As Ash was about to hand over the key to her, Serena quickly thought of a way to make him sleep inside, get him with her, in a single room. "And do you think that I am stupid enough to fall for that, I know that you are going to sleep outside."

Nurse Joy gasped at this, and spoke quickly, "Oh no, you must not sleep outside, you might catch a cold. We have a spare room in the back, if you don't mind sleeping with a few Pokemon."

Ash was going to answer, but Serena interrupted him, "No, there is no need for that, my boyfriend and I can share a room.", she quickly said, and took the key from Ash's hands. Then she wrapped herself around his arm and said thank you to Nurse Joy, as she pushed Ash towards the rooms. While she was doing so, she quickly made a triumphant expression to all the other females who were earlier eyeing Ash, and were now furious at Serena's good fortune.

Ash knew then better to offer an opposition to Serena, and allowed himself to be shoved into the room. Then he sighed as he flopped onto the bed, with his eyes closed, and his hands over them. Serena was about to start giving Ash a lecture about girls, that he was so desperately in need of, but before she could start, Ash opened his eyes to reveal his original chocolate brown eyes, and then he spoke up, "Serena, as soon as Gardevior and Gallade turn up, we are going to leave for Sinnoh."

Serena was confused at this, and Ash noticed her confusion. "We are going there to show you the Grand Festival that will be starting in a few days."

After hearing this Serena was super excited. She always was mesmerized by the performances made by the Coordinators, and always wanted to visit the Grand Festival. "Thank you!", she squealed as she hugged him.

Ash just smirked. _And by then, I could also start my real training._

* * *

**Well, this is the end of the many short chapters of this story, but it is the beginning of a very important plot of the story.**

**So long, Copycat out.**


	20. Chapter 20

**Hey guys! How are you all? I know, I know, many of you have been thinking that I have stopped updating for sometime. But, to tell the truth, although at this time summer vacations have started in most institutions, but, our school had terminal exams till 15th of June(Yes, I have been writing this chapter since 14th.). Plus, our academy is also not going that easy on us for this instance. We have only gotten a week off i.e, the last week of June as our vacations from the academy. So, it is quite hectic and frustrating. This chapter will surely be posted at at least a time gap of two to three weeks than the earlier chapter. **

**For the content, I know that many of my readers were confused at the introduction of the Grand Festival suddenly, but this was also an important part of development for reasons that I cannot disclose at this point of time. I have put a lot of thought about what should be the next stage in my story and it's length (come on guys, it takes a lot of time, sometimes even months to decide what we want to do with the stories.), and I am delighted to tell you that I have decided that this story should be somewhere between thirty to thirty five chapters in length.**

**Disclaimer: (Once more, I am going to say the same stupid line again. Maybe I can rant too, so you should know that I did what I was supposed to do and skip this stupidity entirely) I don't own Pokemon. I do own a PS Vita, but I have still not found any game for this console that I could play, so sorry to inform I cannot even claim that I own (well I did used to own as you shall know) any copy of the versions. I only own the roms of blue and red versions, that I backed up for safekeeping of my old gameboy that I lost at some point due to shifting homes. And yeah, I don't own the song that is gonna be used in this chapter.**

* * *

"Oh my god! It's the same guy!", squealed a female trainer out of happiness, as a raven haired boy, with electric blue eyes, wearing a black hoodie and blue jeans walked into the lobby of the Pokemon center of Saffron City, from the direction of the rooms. He had a Yellow rodent perched on his shoulder, who seemed to enjoy his current position. The rodent cooed in happiness as the boy scratched him behind his ears. He had a green and black bag slung over his shoulder that was seemingly bulging out with it's contents, but that was not noticed by any of the people that were present their.

"He is so handsome!", squealed another female. The raven haired boy paid no heed to their squeals, as he took out his little music player from one of his jeans pockets with his free hand, and put the wireless earphones on his and his Pokemon's ears, as he continued to walk outwards. Some of the girls were deciding to leave immediately and follow this person, but before they could do anything, a girl with honey blonde hair that was a little longer than shoulder length, who was wearing a black half sleeve shirt and white shorts with her pink bag slung over her back, started running towards the same direction the boy left, possibly following him. The males in the room would have been admiring her already, if they were not already feeling jealousy towards the the raven haired boy due to him getting attention from so many females.

"Why did he need to have a girlfriend already?", said one the girls that was previously drooling over the raven haired boy. She immediately regretted saying that as she was standing right next to her own boyfriend, an older teen with blue hair who wore a cowboy like jacket which was sleeveless, a pink undershirt, and blue jeans. He seemed to be at least seventeen, and had noticed the antics his girlfriend and the other females were doing. He couldn't help but feel pangs of jealousy clawing away at his self respect and self confidence. By that time, the honey-blonde had also left.

_That pretty boy is gonna pay for his arrogance. _The boy thought as he took out a pokeball from his belt.

* * *

"So, Ash what are you planning for doing for the time that we will be waiting for Gardevior and Gallade to show up?", asked the honey blonde haired girl, Serena, to her long time crush, Ash.

Ash took out his music player from his pocket, and paused the song that was playing at that time to properly answer Serena's question. As soon as he did that, he gained a poke from Pikachu that showed his dissatisfaction at his actions. He playfully poked his partner back, and turned to answer Serena.

"I don't know, hey, you wanna have some ice cream?", Ash asked her with a smile. Serena was so happy at Ash starting to act normally and more cheerfully, although it was due to this new look that he was somehow making for himself through changing the colors of his irises. She nodded energetically.

"Alright, let's find an ice cream cart, then I am gonna sta...", said Ash, as he was interrupted by an arrogant shout from behind him.

"Hey you, sparky eyed kid!", came a voice from behind them. Ash turned around and saw the same guy whose girlfriend had previously whined at her misfortune, and a few other boys were also there backing him up. He was standing there with his arms around the waist of his girlfriend. She looked timidly as she knew that her over possessive boyfriend was doing this due to her reckless comment. "Yeah you! How about a battle? Right her right now!"

"Damien, please don't I didn't...", was all his girlfriend was able to say, as she was stopped by him. Ash looked thoughtful for a moment, as Serena was pouting at this unintended additional event in their day.

_And I was hoping some alone time with him. _She thought.

But, Ash was having mixed feeling towards the name he had heard through the girl's words. _Damien, can it be the same guy..._

Then he noticed the older teen's overconfident smirk. _Yup, it's him alright._

"Sorry, but I have some out to give my girlfriend a treat. Some other time please.", Ash simply said. His words stunned Serena at the most. _D-did he just call me... _But her trail of thoughts were broken as Ash glanced at her and made a little apologizing gesture to her. She smiled a knowing smile and nodded back. _Don't get ahead of yourself Serena..._

"Yes, now how about that ice cream?", she said as she wrapped herself around his left arm. Ash tensed up a little at the sudden show of affection by the girl. He then eased a little. _Pouncing on every opportunity that is presented to her. _he thought as he noticed the slight sly smile that Serena was giving him.

"Naw - aw, you and me are going toe to toe right now.", Damien said, his resolve not budging even a little. He only seemed to grow a little more aggressive at his approach as he tried intimidating his 'opponent', to prove his manliness.

"I am sorry man, but going toe to toe, isn't that mostly used for dance battles. If you are asking me for that then I have to decline, I believe it to be extremely gay to start dancing in the middle of the street.", said Ash, still maintaining a very simple and innocent demeanour. Ash noticed the silent threatening aura that was radiating from Damien, even his girlfriend seemed to be on her guard. "Oh sorry, you actually meant a Pokemon battle, I just couldn't control my tongue due to you wearing a ridiculous combination of clothing."

This hit the nail in the head, and Damien's patience ran out. He ran forward to punch Ash directly in the face and make him pay for all the insults he had caused to him. Serena gasped. She had never seen Ash upset someone like this, and was pushed towards Ash's back just when Damien's fist was about to connect with Ash's face. Then Ash swiftly grabbed Damien's incoming punch, removed his other arm from Serena's hold, and then placed it at Damien's neck, after which he bent his hand behind his back, with enough force to immobilize him due to pain, but not to break his arm.

"Now, now, no need to be that much offended, we are going to have that battle.", said Ash. He turned his head around and mouthed the word 'sorry' to the pouting girl behind him. Then he let go of the furious teen, and then started walking towards the battleground behind the Pokemon Center. Damien, and his group of cronies were too shocked to do anything. Damien also felt ashamed of his irrational behavior, as he received a disapproving nod from his girlfriend. But, soon his shame was transformed into anger, and need to extract revenge. He also started walking towards the field.

* * *

Ash was standing on one side of the field with Pikachu by his side. He seemed to be thinking over things as he waited for Damien to come to the field. He then swung his arm as a shrunk Pokeball slid out of a small pipe like structure under his sleeve. The Pokeball's button hit his index finger, and it got enlarged. Ash released the beast inside, as a huge bipedal draconic Pokemon was released from the orb.

Charizard stood in front of Ash, and Ash nodded to him.

"And, please could you scout for an Ice cream stand while your at it?", said Ash.

Serena was looking at this exchange, she was confused as to what Ash meant by that, but then Charizard flew up with incredible speed, just before Damien could enter the battlefield with his cronies.

"So sucker, are you ready to get the beating you have been asking for?", Damien said smirking as he walked into the trainer box on his side.

"I am going to avoid answering that one, since I have no idea since when did I even talk to you.", said Ash. "Three on three good for you, I always wanted to try that one.", said Damien. Ash nodded.

One of the boys walked into the judge's box and said, "This will be a three on three match with no time restrictions. Substitutions are allowed. Begin!"

"Alright, Arcanine, Weezing and Dragonair, time to kick ass!", said Damien as he released his Pokemon. All three of them held similar smirks as their trainer.

"Ok, Ride out is good for this one.", said Ash he took out his music player again.

"Hey, you are starting to get addicted to that thing!", Serena shouted to Ash. Ash can't help but chuckle. He took out the wireless port and turned up the volume louder as the music started to play.

_Came in at first had bad luck_

_Got a whole lot, remember I ain't had none_

_We done sold now everybody mad at me_

_Tell 'em roll down now everybody smashin'_

"Alright, let's go then.", said Ash he took out three pokeballs and released his choices. "Do whatever you want to!"

In front of him were his three Unnova starters, Snivy, Oshawott and Pignite. All three of them cheered after being able to get back to battling after such a long time. Many of the trainers present there were psyched to see the pokemon from a far away region. Even the Pokemon were so excited that, Snivy started glowing in front of their very eyes. Ash's eyes widened.

_Keep ready cause you know we bout to be a problem_

_Hope you ready cause you know it bout to be a problem _

"Weezing Smokescreen, Arcanine Flamethrower and Dragonair, use Twister to whip up a good storm!", said Damien. He had still not noticed the sudden evolution.

From the glowing white light, a volley of leaves erupted that covered almost whole of the battleground. Ash smirked.

_It's the only way we know to go_

_Squad up, never roll alone_

_And we gone ride on forever_

_We ride out together_

The Unnova starter group moved within the volley of leaves, as Pignite started charging up Flame Charge, and Oshawott started using Aqua Jet. The volley of leaves cut through the rising smoke, and exposed the two Pokemon that were getting ready to release the flaming tornado. They were going to prove to their trainer the strength that they had.

_Pull up right in your zone_

_Takeover the street, that's how we roll_

_And we gone ride on forever_

_We ride out together_

The newly evolved Servine prepared her leaf blade to strike. The trio of Pokemon took aim at their respective targets, Pignite at Arcanine, Oshawott at Dragonair, and Servine at Weezing.

_Fancy when I drive, six cars in the driveway_

_Cash in the driver door, spend it, do it my way_

_I fucks you like a matador, fresh out the catalogue_

Serena was furious at the kind of language the song that Ash had played used. But, she couldn't help but be amazed at the sheer power of the Pokemon that were attacking their opponents.

"Now guys!", shouted Damien, worry evident in his voice. At that time, all of his other cronies sent out their respective Pokemon, ranging from Raticates to Crobats, to even some Arboks. Servine, Pignite and Oshawott stopped their respective attacks. And at the same time, the flaming twister was already prepared, and it was ready to be released.

Ash paused the song as soon as this new development took place. Serena was also concerned and she was about to send out Delphox and Braviary, but she noticed Ash's confident smirk as he was looking towards the sky.

Suddenly, a loud roar was heard through the sky, and then a large dragon like body came crashing downwards towards the twister, with flames at the side and a hint of a green blade like formation. The dragon like being cut the twister in half as it dissipated. Then, with a blinding speed, it took out almost all of the unnecessary combatants. Then it flew down and stood by Ash.

Charizard eyed Damien with eyes full of hatred. It didn't even consider taking revenge on it's previous 'trainer', as he considered him to be beneath himself. Damien shuddered at the gaze that Charizard was giving him. Charizard snorted and sat down on it's bottom and shook the ground. If everyone wouldn't have been so terrified by the giant lizard, it would have made a funny scene at the way he sat down.

"So, you called me for a fair match right.", said Ash, with his makeshift electric blue eyes glinting. His Pokemon also stared straight towards the shivering Pokemon of Damien.

"Alright guys, Pledge storm!", Ash said to his Pokemon. The three Unnova Pokemon smirked again, and prepared their most powerful combination that Ash had taught them. Servine prepared Grass Pledge, while Pignite started using Fire Pledge and Oshawott readied Water Pledge. Then they unleashed a full wrath of the elements on the three poor Pokemon owned by Damien. As the three Pokemon lay fainted by their scared trainer, Ash walked over to his side of the field. Damien hadn't even considered returning his fainted Pokemon. Ash walked to each of them and gave them a revive each. Then he walked over to Damien and said, "You are still the same gullible jerk that couldn't believe in the power of his Pokemon. I already knew that you would be doing something sneaky."

Then Ash walked away while appreciating each of his Pokemon, and congratulating Servine, then returning them all, except Charizard. Ash turned around once again with his eyes full of pity. Damien was being scolded by his girlfriend, and his friends had left him alone to feel the full wrath of that girl.

"And, that is why I don't consider to get into a relationship", said Ash, and he quickly looked around to see if Serena was around him. Unluckily for him, Serena was just standing behind him.

"And what do you mean by that?", Serena asked with her hands on her hips.

"Uh - um, hey Charizard, in which direction did you see that Ice cream cart?", Ash quickly said to escape from the trouble.

* * *

**That's it. This chapter wasn't all that action packed. Now, I need to get some sleep, maybe will update this in two or three days. Good night guys (Or is it morning. Bah, I don't know)**

**Oh yeah, the song was Ride out, from Fast and Furious 7.**

**So long, Copycat out.**


	21. Chapter 21

**Hey Guys! Hows it going? I am doing fine here and am happy to start writing another one of the chapters that won't be a filler. Well, that doesn't mean that this chapter will contain the gruesome / awesome kill scenes that some readers had requested me. But hey, there will be all of the things eventually. It just doesn't seem completely right to do them in this chapter, which is a pretty solid reason am not gonna do that. Sorry guys if you had been expecting this, since I didn't find enough time to answer most of the PM's back.**

**This chapter marks the return of the Psychic siblings. I need suggestions for whom my readers would like them to join. Yeah, if you want them both to join one's team, or join different teams, you can just give me your suggestions via PM's or reviews. Since this pivotal for my plot so I would like you guys to help out on this. Also, remember that I said that Ash's old Pokemon are going to return eventually, well, this chapter marks the return of another one.**

**Plus, I gotta say, this chapter will include another one of the songs that I really like. I am sorry if you may not like this, so please tell me if you have any problems with me doing so. I may just do it to lighten the mood sometimes, or give some background suggestions, because I myself listen to them while typing these chapters up. And I have a very... diverse playlist. So tell me if I should continue doing these songs.**

**Disclaimer: I am not old enough to own a car. Pokemon is way out of my league. And naa, am very bad at singing too.**

* * *

"So, are you ready sis?", asked Gallade, his voice filled with expertly hidden emotions. Gardevior could feel his emotions, but chose rather not to tease her brother with that. She would rather use this knowledge of her brother's weakness afterwards to her own advantage. She gave a smile to her brother and nodded. _But he is really caring too._

Then she closed her eyes, and activated her psychic abilities to scope out the terrain to get the familiar psychic signatures for Pikachu, since she could easily triangulate a Pokemon's brain signature. She hoped that their friends were all near Pikachu, or their task would become a lot more difficult.

Having searched for Pikachu for two minutes, she found his psychic signature due North East of their current position. She opened her eyes and turned her head to inform her brother that she had found out their friends, but found Gallade taking a nap on a nearby rock. She sighed. _He never ceases to be a pain. Too bad, he is going to be suddenly awakened from his beauty sleep._

Gardevior simply picked up a small rock with her Psychic and then, she threw it towards Gallade's head, but was shocked to see that the stone just stopped right in front of his face. Gallade got up and glared at her. "You know, you could have just said that you were done.", he said with a hint of anger in his tone.

Gardevior pouted. "I was trying to have some fun. Well looks like you were training while I was recovering, I have never seen your reflexes to be so sharp.", she said.

"Blah blah blah, just take us to Pikachu.", Gallade said. Gardevior sighed again as her brother walked nearer to her so that he may not be left behind during teleportation. Gardevior focused her mind once again at the same direction. She sensed Pikachu's emotions for a moment, and she felt a varying mixture of sadness, pride and happiness. She felt a little weird about this, but shrugged it off thinking that she would come to know about it eventually.

* * *

As the light from teleport started fading away, Gardevior and Gallade materialized right in front of three figures, who were currently blinded by the bright Psychic light, and were covering their eyes to protect themselves from it. As the light faded away completely, they found themselves stood directly in front of Ash, Serena and Pikachu, who welcomed them with bright smiles. But, it took them sometime to understand that only those three were not the ones who were there to welcome them.

On both the heads of Ash and Serena, the were surprised to find two Butterfrees resting. What was even more surprising, was that the one resting on Serena's head was a differently colored one, actually a pink one.

Gallade quickly recovered from his shock and then gave his trademark smirk and nod. Ash nodded back, as the Butterfree over his head became hovering over his head. By that time, Serena and Gardevior had already started chatting with each other about all the events that had occurred after their separation. The pink Butterfree was also hovering over them, usually giving her own remarks to their talk in the form of whimpering or happy 'Freeeee'.

"So who are the bugs?", Gallade asked motioning to the two Butterfrees, after sometime of getting bored of watching the girls chat.

Gardevior also realized that she was curious too about the addition in their travelling partners. She gave Serena a questioning look who quietly giggled and said,"It's Ash's old Pokemon and friend Butterfree, and his mate".

At the mention of the word mate, both the bugs blushed red, but only blush of the normal colored one was visible due to the color difference on his face.

"Alright... So, how did you guys come across each other?", Gallade asked feeling weird at the sudden blushing. _Seriously, remind me never to fall in love._

"Oh, actually, the normal one is Ash's old Pokemon...", said Serena until she was interrupted rudely by the pink Butterfree's nudge. "Oh yeah, sorry. His first Pokemon he had ever caught. He had released him to be able to live his life fully with his mate.", she said while motioning to the bugs.

"If, he had released him, so what are they doing here?", said Gallade obnoxiously, thus getting a nudge in the ribs by his sister.

"Well...", Ash trailed off as everyone else understood that he was preparing to tell the story.

* * *

_Three hours ago_

Ash and Serena were passing through Route 7, from where they were going towards Vermillion City, to catch the next ferry to Sinnoh's Sandgem Town. While passing through the Route, they came near a cliff. Ash suddenly halted and started looking around himself, as if he remembered the place. Then he looked towards Serena with a smile and said while pointing towards a clearing,"We will reach Vermillion by tomorrow, so why not rest up a bit over there in that clearing."

Serena nodded and she sat under one of the trees in the clearing while keeping an eye on Ash. By that time, Ash started rummaging through his bag looking for something. He then took out three Pokeballs, and released Pidgeot, Wartortle and Bulbasaur. The three of them were confused at first as to why were they called out at that time, but Pikachu silently communicated with them the reason of their stay. Then Ash also released Charizard from his Pokeball, who looked around, and then nodded, apparently already knowing the reason for them being here.

Pikachu jumped off of Ash's shoulder and ran over towards a few berry trees, followed by Bulbasaur, and both started plucking a few berries. Pidgeot flew upwards and started scanning the area, while Wartortle jumped of the cliff into the sea. Charizard seemingly waited patiently near Ash, as he looked at his Pokemon doing there work with a faint smile.

At this point, Serena started to grow curious as to what Ash was planning to do. She walked over to Ash with her hands behind her back, and looked over to him from his side, noticing his faint smile. Confused by this, she asked, "Whatcha doin?", in the most cutest voice that she could muster up.

"Something that I felt like I needed to do since a long time.", said Ash, with a neutral expression to his face. Then his smile returned as he saw that Pikachu and Bulbasaur were returning with some berries that they had collected. "Wanna help me?", he asked her.

_Thirty minutes later_

Ash had made Wartortle, who had returned with a few semi - precious stones he had found at the base of the sea, use a weak water gun over the berries and softened them up to so that he could take the color out of them. Serena had used her experience in pokepuff decoration and had made an ornate Victorian design on a steel plate Pidgeot had found while flying over the forest. She had prepared a pattern that would accommodate a rectangular center piece where something that was written down by them. Charziard had already usedhis heat wave and roasted the color so it would not be able . Wartortle amd Charizard were arranging the stones he had found in a neat pile. Then Ash released Boldore.

"Boldore, can you use Stone Edge around that pile of rocks?", said Serena. Boldore nodded, as he, almost artistically and completely skillfully used stone edge around the neat pile.

"Great, now please hold it strong then when I say start squeezing the pile.", said Ash. Boldore got ready and focused on his Stone Edge. Charizard then readied himself, and then he fired a massive Flamethrower. The attack slowly started melting the stones, fusing them together.

"Now Boldore.", said Ash. Boldore started applying pressure onto it. After sometime, Ash asked Charizard to stop his attack, but Boldore kept on going. Slowly the melted mass started compressing into a small sized pillar that was the height of a Chansey. After a few more minutes, Ash asked Boldore to lay off the pressure. Boldore slowly retracted the stones into the ground. The mass had started slowly solidifying, it was still red hot with the heat. Ash passed the steel slab to Charizard, who took it and then engulfed his fists in fire to match the heat of the Pillar. He then pushed the steel slab on the top of the pillar at an angle.

The slab read the words :

"_Butterfree's Cliff_

_A cliff where Butterfree meet every year to find their mate. _

_For my beloved friend Butterfree._"

Serena smiled at these words. She never thought that Ash loved his Pokemon so much. _If I were a Pokemon... Uhhh, damn imaginations._

"Well the Pillar is not officially set by the authorities, so it will surely be taken away... But still, I hope that he will be here at least once before they take that Pillar away.", said Ash as he slowly sat down on the ground. The Pillar was still glowing a red hue from the heat. His Pokemon followed suit, with Pikachu jumping onto his lap.

"Well you did a good thing for your friend. I am sure that wherever he may be, he is very happy with his mate.", said Serena, sitting next to Ash. They started looking towards the ocean. Pikachu poked Ash after sometime when the Pillar stopped glowing. Both the humans turned their heads towards where the small Pillar, and were awestruck at what they had created. The stones had been compressed under heat so much, that they had started crystallizing, making the whole Pillar into a sea green color.

"Did you know that would happen?", asked Serena. Ash simply nodded his head side to side, still quite amazed by what had happened. Then he simply sat looking towards the ocean again. "Maybe they won't through it away now.", he said.

"Yeah maybe...", Serena also looked towards the ocean.

After sometime, Pikachu grew bored, and so he took out Ash's Music Player, and started a song randomly. Ash was going to resist this, but he soothed down when he heard what song was playing. Even Serena was soothed by the song. She never approved of Ash's and his Pokemon's addiction to listening to music, but she was going to let it slide this time.

_It's been a long day without you, my friend_

_And I'll tell you all about it when I see you again_

_We've come a long way from where we began_

_Oh, I'll tell you all about it when I see you again_

_When I see you again_

Ash remembered all the good times he had with his Butterfree. How they together fought many matches against trainers who had occasionally challenged Ash. How Butterfree had always given his all in his matches with Brock and Misty.

_Damn, who knew?_

_All the planes we flew_

_Good things we've been through_

_That I'll be standing right here talking to you_

_'Bout another path_

_I know we loved to hit the road and laugh_

_But something told me that it wouldn't last_

_Had to switch up_

_Look at things different, see the bigger picture_

_Those were the days_

_Hard work forever pays_

_Now I see you in a better place_

Ash then remembered the day when Butterfree left. He never remembered any other day when he had cried as much.

_How can we not talk about family when family's all that we got?_

_Everything I went through you were standing there by my side_

_And now you gon' be with me for the last ride_

He still remembered the way he waved goodbye to his friend as he slowly flew away into the horizon.

_It's been a long day without you, my friend_

_And I'll tell you all about it when I see you again _

_We've come a long way from where we began _

_Oh, I'll tell you all about it when I'll see you again _

_When I'll see you again_

Ash laid back onto the ground, thinking about the good old days, the day when he had captured Caterpie, when Caterpie had defeated Team Rocket single handedly, when he evolved into Metapod, the hilarious battle he had with the Samurai of Viridian forest, the way Metapod saved him from the stinger of a Beedrill, how he had once traded Butterfree to an old gentleman for a Raticate, but got him back again. He then closed his eyes and enjoyed the time.

_First you both go out your way_

_And the vibe is feeling strong_

_And what's small turn to a friendship_

_A friendship turn to a bond_

_And that bond will never be broken_

_The love will never get lost _

_And when brotherhood come first_

_Then the line will never be crossed_

_Established it on our own_

_When that line had to be drawn_

_And that line is what we reach_

_So remember me when I'm gone _

_How can we not talk about family when family's all that we got?_

_Everything I went through you were standing there by my side_

_And now you gon' be with me for the last ride_

_So let the light guide your way, yeah_

_Hold every memory as you go_

_And every road you take, will always lead you home, home_

Ash suddenly felt another presence on his lap. He opened his eyes, and they met with two large red multi lense eyes. Ash was about to push the presence off of him and get ready to attack, but what he heard next stopped him.

"Free?"

* * *

**So here it is guys. Took me a real long time to make this chapter. Man, about the pillar business, I wanted to check what was the name of the cliff where Ash released Butterfree, but never could find it. Then I watched a youtube video of a rom hack called Ash Gray, which follows the anime. In it he releases Butterfree near Route 7. So I used that. It took me another day to plan the pillar and it's formation. Well, if I were only working on this single thing then I could have made it faster, but you know my schedule guys. Hope that I didn't dissappoint my readers. And if you want to know about the color of the crystal pillar. It's the same color as that of the eyes of a Super Saiyan in Dragon Ball Z.**

**So long, Copycat out.**


	22. Note This is the end

**Hey guys... I know that you are maybe expecting copycat to have updated by now but... He won't... I am his friend David who is also interested in fanfiction and casually ended up in opening his account... Well the thing is that copycat... Or in reality Jay met with an accident last year... His car crashed and he lost his eyes in it... He no longer writes and has changed a lot... I have read his story and seen how he was regarding always getting it on time and never stopping it till the end... But he doesn't and he can't do it anymore... So I am uploading this chapter on his behalf... Please pray for him... **


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